Coming Full Circle

You never forget your first hack. For me, it was watching my cousin work his magic on Atari ST games during a childhood vacation. The way he could patch game resources to modify their behavior seemed like pure wizardry to my young mind. That spark of curiosity led me down a fascinating path – from tinkering with cracked software on an Amstrad 1512 to diving deep into DRM systems and eventually reverse engineering virtualized audio gear.

Over the years, I went from simply testing patched programs to actually modifying code and even working alongside some legendary hackers. But here's the thing – while breaking protections was exciting, I discovered my real passion lay in building things. That realization ended up steering me toward software development.

Back to Reverse Engineering

Life has a funny way of bringing things around. Recently, a friend told me about their upcoming software release – something I'm convinced will be a hit. And you know what happens to popular software? It becomes a prime target for crack developers. I couldn't help but be curious about their security system, especially since I knew the brilliant minds behind it.

Here's what's interesting about software cracking: it's rarely about brute-forcing through the heavily fortified parts. More often, it's about finding those clever little workarounds nobody thought to protect against. So when my friend suggested I try cracking their pre-release version to help spot any obvious vulnerabilities, I jumped at the chance. It felt like a perfect throwback to what got me into the warez scene decades ago – but this time, completely above board!

Back in the Saddle

I dusted off my toolkit – IDA, Ghidra, and my trusty hex editor – and dove right in. In the cracking world, creating a keygen is considered the ultimate achievement. It's like picking the lock and carving a key instead of breaking down the door – you're generating valid serial keys by understanding and replicating the protection code itself. But that's a huge time investment, and I was working with limited time and rusty skills.

So I started with the basics: binary patching. Think of it as rewiring the program's circuitry by modifying its assembly instructions. I found a few ways to bypass the security checks, but here's the catch with software protection: there could always be hidden checks lurking in the shadows, waiting to catch you off guard.

The Lightbulb Moment

That's when something clicked. Instead of hammering away at the obvious security measures, why not look at the parts everyone assumed were safe? After some creative poking around, I found a way to bypass the entire protection system!! Sure, I had some advantages – familiarity with certain security approaches and knowing this wasn't the final code – but man, what a rush when it worked! ??

Making Security Better

The best part? Taking all these findings and turning them into something constructive. I detailed everything I discovered and threw in some suggestions for making the software significantly harder to crack. I even built a proof-of-concept protection system to show how certain compiler patterns could be leveraged for better security.

We all know that given enough time, patience, and skill, any DRM can be cracked – it's just a fact of life in software. But if my contributions help keep my friend's software secure for longer when it launches, I'll count that as a win.

This little holiday project reminded me why I fell for reverse engineering in the first place. It's like solving a complex puzzle where creativity matters as much as technical know-how. But more than that, it demonstrated how understanding how to break software is often the key to building it stronger.

Update: A Fun Aftermath

Since writing this, Serum 2 has officially dropped: xferrecords.com/products/serum-2. As expected, it drew plenty of attention – five crack attempts have surfaced already… but none of them actually work.

Instead, they’ve triggered some of the fun surprises we left behind – melting UIs, cryptic messages, and a few well-placed easter eggs just for kicks. All intentional. All part of the plan.

Interestingly, the only release team I thought had a real shot at breaking it decided to take a breather. Their latest message included this gem:

"Still bored? How about having fun by testing Serum2 releases by other groups? They are trying to crack without solving [famous encoding], [famous crypto], [famous hashing]. Not only the Steve's timebomb, you need to fight with the bugs which cracker added. Let's hope someone will make some real effort to reverse their licensing system ;)"

Gotta love the mutual respect in this strange little cat-and-mouse world. Honestly, it's been a blast – blending solid protection, clever traps, and just enough mischief to make it entertaining. Here's to building things worth protecting.

Disclaimer: This article discusses reverse engineering in the context of authorized security testing. All activities described were performed with explicit permission for the purpose of improving software security.