Re: Starforce: why is there no permanent crack?

Nostromo wrote:
Just curious...why is it so difficult for hackers to rip it out when they
are making the no-cd exes? Is it that pervasive & intrusive across the
entire software, or is there another reason...?


No, actually. If one's hands can be got on it, the program executable has to call a function which checks for the presence of the Starforce drivers, and does one of two things; either does not find it, installs it and reboots the computer, or does find it, calls the driver routines and checks the disc. If this function is not called, Starforce is never installed, nor is it ever contacted for verification of the source.

Thus, the best way to make Starforce cracks is to remove the call to this function, in the form of a remote jump in the program code (basically, telling the program that the next part of the program is REALLY over at memory address "Y", rather than address "X"). This seems simple enough on the surface, but to get into the actual program coding requires arduous hours of reverse engineering and thread-spying. Which is to say of course, that most people simply do not want to go through the hassle of deconstructing a large executable, looking for a single small function, disabling it, recompiling, testing, re-working, and finally using the modified executable.

Not that I have any idea how to do this, or even what we're talking about. ;) Bicycles, maybe.

TheSmokingGnu
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