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12.02 Stoppard: For those of you who did not know, I have long been a fan of
Tom
Stoppard's works. Apparently my favorite bit of Stoppard dialogue
--I think I had this very argument
with a girlfriend-- is appreciated by others as well.
And again, gratitude to kuririn for the poetry.
Finally, the more discriminating readers of this site may enjoy some, albeit non-Stoppard,
short and
long plays.
11.29 Philosophy with a Torque Wrench: Awhile ago Harma and I had pretty cool
thread going on Fravia's Message Board, and having nothing better to do I decided to upload it here before the
board shuffles off this mortal coil. Part I was the longest and the one I
enjoyed the most--though no-one got my Steven Brust "bones?" reference. Or maybe they did...
Part II is missing my long response as my Netscape crashed right when I
hit send; thus this thread has always been missing my tender invective.
PartIII concerns one of my favorite topics: the worth (or lack thereof) to
which humanity lays claim.
11.29 Flow Analyzer: Rev 2. Now exports IDC scripts, has a few new features
and a killer IDC script for the main call trace. Get it below...
11.27 Active X: I just returned from an errand run wherein I picked up
8 Stories by Dylan Thomas,
Zytnia Vodka and some Juliano dry vermouth,
and Mr Bunny's Guide to Active X. All are highly recommended (though I like
D'Aquino vermouth best: does anyone even distribute that anymore?)
11.27 Win32ASM: There is now an IRC channel/server for Windows Assembly Language at
#win32 asm or via the web interface, courtesy of
Saqquara.
11.26 Flow Analyzer: I have started work on what should eventually turn into a useful reverse engineering tool. Those wishing a preview may
examine it right now, though it has maybe a quarter of its intended functionality. If you do not understand what it is
or why it exists after the first usage, return it postage pre-paid for a full refund.
10.31 Hiatus II: The web is taking too much of time; following the message boards, trying to keep old projects alive, seeking out new things.
I'm behind on my Unix work, I'm behind on my programming, I'm behind on my writing, I'm behind on my painting, I'm even behind on my email. Cracking concerns and
questions keep dragging me back to the Windows platform when I am now on Linux (and never want to go back!). So I'm giving up the ol' web for the time being, I am henceforth going to
ignore my site, the message boards, and any cracking/help requests related to the Windows platform (unless they're *really* intriguing). I will of course still answer email. I will be on ICQ.
I will continue to work on the APJ, though Visual Assembler I quite frankly do not have time for. Perhaps I'll return in a few weeks/months, perhaps even with a newer incarnation of my page ;)
10.31 APJ: I need more articles for the December issue! Anything to do with assembly language programming, even code snippets... Check the Message Board, mail me, or
check out the APJ Guestbook. Also, the freeservers site has horrivle uptime, so I have mirrored it here.
10.31 Visual Assembler: I do not have time to co-ordinate this project. I do have time to advise, and to help work on it. I have the addresses, etc. of all the coders and interested parties,
but I am not going to bug them about working (apologies to all who have expressed interest in the past 1-2 months, I will reply to you eventually). So, in short, I need a successor to co-ordinate design plans with,
to take over the daily duties of the project (moderating the message board, maintaining contact with the coders, etc)--any interested parties may email me.
10.16 Assembly Programming Journal: APJ first Issue is out! Also, looking for successor to handle Visasm project in my absence.
9.16 Linux Source: Two cool kernel source navigators are available for Linux. The one at
Sunsite is alright, but I very much prefer the
Zaphod server (must be my Beeblebrox fetish). A couple of other good
linux pages include the Linux Software Map and the Linux Programming page.
9.03 ASM Programming Journal: So I had this idea, and it has yet to be determined whether or not it is a good one. I am looking at starting an online magazine
(dist via email and web) dedicated to assembly language, as there seems to be a renewed interest in this style of programming. The magazine would be a platform for publishing/exchanging
routines, optimization tips, weird asm tricks (virii, polymorphism, etc), HOW-TOs, assembler-specific coding, etc--any and every trick there is to asm coding. Of course, this is a magazine and not a web page,
meaning that I will edit and contribute but there is no way I can do the whole thing. The Journal has a rudimentary web page here, as
well as a discussion board for
posting article ideas, etc --hell, why not one more, after all they're free eh?
9.02 Coding: Some interesting things in the magazine this month. Microsoft Systems Journal has for October an app called BugSlayer that I haven't looked at yet; however
the real good stuff is in the September issue with Pietrek's ModuleList program (a follow up to NukeDLL) and a utility called Control Spy; the source for these programs may be downloaded
by issue at the MSJ source code site. Windows Developer Journal features an article by Sven Schreiber (of Walk32 fame) on customizing the WinMain
function for Win32 programs (useful technique if you're into code generators); source for the current issue can be downloaded from WDJ's site. While out traipsing the web for this source I came across the following
very good coding and "coding theory" links:
Coder's Guild,
Yahoo: Programming Magazines,
Programmer's Oasis,
Programming & Computational Languages: A Subject Guide,
Resources for Programming Language Research, and
The Compiler Connection.
8.31 Book Exchange: One of my side projects has coincided with similar efforts from a few others and there is now an
attempt to create an online book exchange to enable the sharing of information. Ideas on how to manage such an endeavor as well as
possible resources for sharing would be welcome.
8.08 Wrox Source: Does anyone out there have the source (or the pdf file ;) to the book Revolutionary Guide To Bitmapped Graphics by Wrox Press?
I am interested in checking out the code at the very least, but cannot see paying US$40 for material that has been covered many times over on the web (and, therefore, on my hard drive ;).
8.08 Miscellaneous: The length of time between updates to this site is a measure of how busy I am.
The links page needs a rework, there are more "tales" to polish off and upload, not to mention the first two tales which were never finished.
But on to the news... CrackZ has put up an excellent page and fortunately posted it to Scenelink, where
I found myself recently; ZenCrack may be a little orcish in the title, but there is a lot of good info there, plus a ton of material for
the beginner--it is good to see a page arise that like the "main three" (greythorne, caligo, fravia) can stand on its own.
Another excellent site is LA Online, with ASM links/tutes/info, virus coding, reality cracking, Picasso Pics,
bits of Nietzche and a dash of S&M, all done with a certain graphic style...what else would you expect from LA?
Miscellaneous virii info/source/etc can be found at CodeBreakers, and every "zine" you will ever need
can be found either at Giga or at Etext (be sure to read BOFH).
Also, there is an Assembly Language Forum hosted by Sandpile (in fact there are a few of these around; see the
new section below). And no update would be complete without mention of the new
home for Visual Assembler (with the Fortunecity page retained as a mirror),
hosted by Iczelion (who has his own very fantastic page).
7.20 Win32 Coding: While fruitlessly searching for information on writing a registry editor I came across the
following interesting essays on M$oft's site, some of which I had read and some which I had not:
at the base URL for Win32 Development, there are essays on
DLL Rebasing,
Memory-Mapped Files,
Multi-Threaded Applications,
PE File Format,
Windows Hooks,
File Viewers, and
Shell Extensions. There are also pages for
software downloads and
demos.
My original question, however, remains unanswered: How can one code a registry editor that will view/edit/import/export
information in an off-line registry, that is, from the component .dat files? I have a need for such an editor
quite often, yet the technique used by standard resource editors is the RegConnectRegistry API function provided by
ADVAPI32, which will connect to a computer and load the open "key handle" to its registry. I suppose what is needed is to trace through
the initial registry initialization at startup and mimic the loading code in an editor, a terrible amount of work. (Note 8.15: got some
interesting ideas from Spyder and Imation on this--thanks guys :). One more thing--and thanks to Pr0t0n for responding with the stub thing--I know
about the regedit DOS stub; I just have the take the time to reverse it and port it to a Win32 App like regedit. Perhaps in October. Hmm, it's amazing
how many people out there like playing with the registry :)
7.06 Batch File Programming: DOS batch-file programming is tedious and difficult--like coding with one
hand and four of the next one's fingers tied behind your back--but it is challenging and it does force you to be clever
(much like hunting with a stone axe will make you a more clever hunter than if you used, say, a .30-06). Some very helpful
hints can be found at the DOS batch Programming page,
at DOS Batch Language: A personal View,
at the Batch File Stuff page (which includes a low-down
debug-driven disassembler), and also at Dirk van Deun's Batch File Collection
(don't forget to check out his Batch file virus).
Disks for the Advanced MS-DOS Batch File Programming
and the Enhanced MS-DOS Batch File Programming books is
also available.
7.02 Search Bookmarks: A Netscape bookmark file of current search engines (plus a few bonuses ;) is now
available at search.html: import it into your Netscape bookmarks and it will appear as the subfolder
"Search". Current plans include similar bookmark files for programming and security links; recommendations of stable pages
are welcome.
5.02 Visual Assembler: Visual Assembler will be a Win32 IDE for assembly programming that will apply RAD programming techniques to the asm language. Despite Kauler's demonstration of how to implement classes in TASM, this will not be
a "Visual" tool that relies on class libraries (like C Builder, VB, Delphi, and MFC do) but rather will be made up of a number of .asm modules (as per the programming method you may remember from reading
your Peter Norton asm book, modular assembly: no surprises here) that use the Win32 API for their "objects" (therefore you need no extra DLLs and your program ships small!). The coding for this will not be too
difficult but will be tedious as there will be a lot of it. I am looking for both asm coders for the modules and C coders for the IDE as I hate coding. This project is going to be produced and distributed for
free (as fits with my philosophy) in accordance with the GNU license or something similar. Work is being done in conjunction with the HCU as that is where the most interest lies; however anyone may
contribute without being a member or affiliate of the HCU (contact me for more info). The more who contribute, the more features there will be and the quicker it will get through beta!
4.28 Forum: Yes, the forum is down. No, I do not know why. This is what comes of using somebody else's code.
I have set up a
backup forum that can be used in times like this.
4.02 Web Ring: There is a Reverse Engineering Web Ring now in existence, with such distingushed members as
MEXELiTE and Lord Caligo. Unfortunately the ring seems to primarily be
made up of cracking sites, meaning there will be a lot of "look-what-our-group-did" sites, but still there should be a few pages with valuable information.
3.31 Java: Kimera is an online Java disassembler viewing Java bytecodes rather than Java source code; the bytecodes can then
be run through the Jasmin assembler for running on a Java VM.
Other Java disassemblers include JavaP,
WingDis,
Dis,
and the Java Decompiler source on the Technology Cornucopia page.
Somewhat related and of general interest is the MakeDis
disassembler assembler which, given an input file of processor opcodes, will generate a disassembler (in C source) for that processor.
3.30 CGI: A number of online CGI resources are available from Yahoo's CGI Topic, including
Building HTML Interfaces,
CGI Bot,
CGI Made Easy,
CGI Resource Index,
the CGI Specification,
libraries in C
C
Tcl
Perl
(2),
LPage CGI School,
Selena Sols's Scripts and Library, and
WebScripts. CGI enthusiasts may wish to check out the
Python,
Perl, and
Tcl scripting languages as well.
3.18 Survey: A survey of the tools and knowledge
required for reverse engineering and cracking has been posted to aid aspirants in this field.
3.10 GNU/O'Reilly: All of the free GNU software can be found not only at the GNU project's
site, but also at a faster mirror here. In addition,
the O'Reilly source code and the downloads from many other periodicals can be found at ftp.uu.net.
3.10 ReactOS: ReactOS is a project for creating a Win32 OS under the GNU public
license. I encourage all talented programmers/reversers to contribute to or support this project--not
only does it provide an opportunity to combat the threat of Micro$oft Monopoly, it is also a chance
to redo the OS right, i.e. without the bugs. The project so far consists of the
main page, the
Application Team, the
Kernel Team, the
Win32 API Team, an
FTP Site, an
IRC Thread, a
Mailing List, an
Email Archive, and a
Message Board. The project also maintains an
excellent Knowledge Base.
3.09 Product Watch: The following have caught my eye as possible tools/targets:
Memcheck by stratosware, Spyworks by Desaware, Valkyrie by Codeworks, Codewright by Premia,
Vedit by Greenview Data Inc, SPF/Win and SPF SourceEdit by Command Technology Corp, PCLint by Gimpel,
Hamilton C Shell by Hamilton Laboratories, Visual Parse by Sandstone Tech, Vermont Hightest by
Vermont Creative Software, C-Doc Pro by Software Blacksmiths (demo avail), Exceed by Hummingbird,
Modelview Advantage by Intergraph, Soft F/X by Byte By Byte, Protospeed by Progress, and StreamTeam
by Paladin Software. A couple of these I have in old version on CDROMs from conventions and such, but
most I have yet to start looking for. Anyone with info on these products is welcome to contact me.
2.23 Linux: Enourmous documenation can be found at the Linux Documentation Project, including
the Linux Programmer's Guide,
the Linux System Administrator's Guide,
the Linux Network Administrator's Guide,
and the Linux Kernel Hacker's Guide. Also online are the
man pages, the Linux Gazette,
the Reading List,
and the How-Tos.
2.16 Tools: Tools page updated and reformatted ("internally") for easier maintenance. Apologies for the delay to all who sent me utilities for review: rest assured I was not
disappointed by a single one.
1.13 Merger: Ghiribizzo and I have merged our WebApp discussion boards. At last, full-time coverage (more or less)!
1.10 Hiatus: No explanation. This page is now on hiatus. It may be updated, but only infrequently.
1.09 CrackPC: Wouldn't it be great if the Soft-Ice Command Reference was less than 3 MB, did not require a postscript reader,
and was searchable? Now it is: check out crackpc.zip!
1.05 Browser wars: New Browser avail from www.operasoftware.com (Thanks to MP5 for info): 1.19MB download,
2.11MB installed, allegedly more stable than Netscape or MSIE (maybe...I only crashed it once!). Good UI,
easy to use, v-e-r-y configurable. Patch offset 46E23 from 7436 to EB5F and it's yours forever. [beta 11 only]
1.01 Layout: This page was designed on Netscape 3.01 with 24-bit color @ 800x600 resolution, using 11pt Courier New as the default font. May the gods help you if you use otherwise... |
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