Cracked software hazards!

Who cares, as long as I get a paid software for free!

Well, that is what most people think. Software cracking is not new to the IT world.

Note: The use of this post is for educational purpose only.

Software cracking is the art of bypassing various licencing mechanisms, inorder to make the software free or skip its registration. The various ways in which this can be done is by “Looping the trial version of the software” or by “Jumping the registration blocks” of the code, both of which result to making the software free.

Software key generators were also used, which is very related to “Jumping the registration blocks”, key generator for any software can be found simply by searching “94fbr <software name> ” on google.

While the first technique is tedious, but does not involve software reverse engineering, thus the code is not manipulated, so there are less chances of software misbehaviour, but it requres the user to uninstall and reinstall trial softwares. So people prefer cracked softwares with the other choice, but what people forget is that these prelincensed versions ( as they’re called in the IT World)  can be dangerous. As the software is modified at the code-level the person cracking the software can introduce breakthroughs where the software can have malicious affects onto the system it installs in.

This lead to the biggest hacking category of all time: The Buffer Overflow attacks. Being a nightmare to software developers. The BO attacks use code addresses and make the software behave anomly while the user is unaware of it.

Buffer overflow attacks: Buffer Overflow definition & example.

But it gave rise to a number a new era of progamming languages that exploited these defects, one of them being Java, which checks for abnormal conditions by throwing exceptions. Various OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) came into developing modern programming methodologies and tools, Buffer Overflow Protection methods.

Thus it is not safe to use cracked softwares, specially if it is used in a corporate workstation.

Stay tunned for more! Take Care and have a Cyber Safe day! Adios.

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