Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!decwrl!shelby!neon!kaufman
From: kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Key disk protection systems?
Keywords: key disk, protection
Message-ID: <1990Oct14.040032.21205@Neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 14 Oct 90 04:00:32 GMT
References: <28757@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 20

In article <28757@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> gabriel@zion.berkeley.edu.UUCP writes:
>Does anybody out there know how to remove key disk protections from programs?

>  Short of tracing the original machine code, is there any simple way
>of doing this?

I highly recommend MacNosy.  The fundamental flaw in all disk protection
schemes is that the first few bytes of the application must be executable,
hence they can be disassembled.

When you figure out what those bytes do, write a small program to do that to
a copy of the program.  Then use MacNosy again.  You will now have more
executable bytes.  Repeat as needed.

The only open question is who gets tired first.  I have seen 4 separate layers
of "encryption" that had to be waded through.  On the other hand, those
programs probably won't run on your fx until you get the disk hardware
dependencies out, anyway.

Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)