i usually associate the word cracker with someone that 'cracks' programs for piracy, 'cracks' serail numbers and things like that.

A good way of assuming it. All the bad stuff is related to crackers and NOT hackers, like what people think it is.

like i say some people have a weird understanding and concept regarding hackers/crackers, especially people with limited computing knowledge.

Its really a pity. I feel sorry for the hackers, others are just doing unjustice to them

does anyone know how keygens work???? i am astounded by them.

What? The ones where you press generate and they give you a serial?

like i say some people have a weird understanding and concept regarding hackers/crackers, especially people with limited computing knowledge.

 

Well, that's the answer to the problem right there.

People with limited computer knowledge will think that a tech who has just fixed their computer is a God.

 

You also need to include the Media, since they do tend to over-emphasize things.

 

To develop that point' date=' hackers are just computer engineers that know a lot about computers. [/quote']

 

It'll help, but not nessesary.

Two things will help you on your way to hacking things:

 

1) Understanding how the Network works(topology, routing tables, etc)

2) C/C++

 

By the way, I'm not sure if anybody has ever been curious, but you'll be surprised by the amounts of help you can get in order to break into a system.

All commercial and residential network equipment has standard passwords and uid's. Well if the user/admin does not change it, then it's a hole waiting to be exploited.

 

Also, the reason why many website break-ins are possible is for a very similar reasons. Especially when I was doing it, many webmasters would include oh so many nice tips and hints in their site(some even had UID's/Passwd's ), many of these websites were simply begging for someone to break in.

 

By the way, a virus/trojan/worm is not and should not be entirely attributed to Crackers, as both groups can, and do, do it.

 

You just need to know how to write the code, most languages will do.

You also need to include the Media, since they do tend to over-emphasize things.

 

Not just the media, everyone that dosent understand what happened over emphasizes things, a lady whose computer i regularly fix thinks me teaching her how to use her scanner is mind boggling.....

another common mistake is the asumption about Hackers using computers all the time, fact is less than 50% of hacking is actualy computer rellated, and even less being the actual sitting at a keyboard time

What? The ones where you press generate and they give you a serial?

 

I see no one has answered this So, I'll talk about both. There are two types of serial key generators:

1.Press generate and the serial comes out

2.Enter information about yourself, press generate and a special serial comes out, which relates to all your details.

 

The explanations are below:

1.This type is very easy. A database is built into the software that has either 1 or more keys installed. When the generate button is pressed, it pulls out randomly from the database, a key.

 

2.This type is more difficulat to make as the crackers need to actually find the code that the sofware is based on that creates the key. Tee software has a secret code that is used to relate all the information of the user in a key. This is like morse code, and the cracker needs to find the key to the morse. After that, he creates the key generator based on that code, so that it can convert the user's information into a key.

 

Hope that helps!

For (2), the key word you are looking for is "algorithm".

yes, that was the word. I forgot it. It was at the tip of my tongue!! Thanx!

is anyone here old enough to remember "Dongles"?

I don't! What is it?

well at face value it seemed like a great idea to protect s/ware, it was basicly hardware key that you`de plug into a port (often the parallel port). the s/ware wouldn`t run without it, you could make a zillion copies if the s/ware, but without the dongle it was useless. the most stupid one I had was for a word proc on a CBM128, the only prod was that with only one Par port, HOW was I supossed to printout???

 

dongles came in all shapes and sizes and ranged from simple pin crossing that you work out with a basic Ohm Meter, to the more complex Eprom based ones sealed in epoxy resin or pitch.

 

it was a lame idea! )

it was a lame idea! )

 

But at least it worked at that time! Don't comapre it with now, as people are smarter now!

well that`s just it, this particular one Didn`t work, unless you had a serial printer

is anyone here old enough to remember "Dongles"?

3DS Max used to ship with a dongle, back in the dark ages.

pity... people could never protect software against piracy!

I`m not sure they can today either

 

we did have ways of s/ware protection also, anything from bootblock encyption for rolling code offsets to actualy ordering your s/ware with your own personal code via snail mail (slow and useless).

there were also certain vol levels set with certain noises that stopped tape to tape reproduction (most of the time).

Well, its just impossible.Software protection can leep many people out, I am not denying it. But, the smart ones just don't get fooled.

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Murphy's law says:

 

You can never make anything fool proof, because everytime you do, someone invents a better fool!

3DS Max used to ship with a dongle, back in the dark ages.

 

Avid ships all of their software with a dongle. However if you're rich enough to be able to afford their video cards, you're certainly rich enough to get their software so it doesn't really matter

it was a lame idea! )

 

Not really, dongles work very well against your average Joe who can just about download himself a crack - without getting hold of a dongle on the cheap, nicking one or building one yourself, you can't run the software. It's certainly good now because people have lots of USB ports etc, but does add to the manufacturing costs, hence why most software firms apart from the large ones don't have them.

what do you lot think of all o the current software protection like safedisc and secur-rom, theyre good, but far too easy to crack and beat, you can download a copy of about any game you feel like, yet they all have protection on, surely there is some way the s/ware companies can stop people copying there games soo quickly, like by putting on some decent protection s/ware on the CD

They never will or ever can stop software piracy, theres just to many people who have far to much free time, deamon tools is a good one for things like securom etc.