Comment by eps
12 days ago
> I've yet to encounter a program where a single flipped JE/JNE or NOP couldn't unlock most or all capabilities
There are some, with code consistency cross-checks and such. Cracking them with static code patching can get very time-consuming. Patching them dynamically works, but some have checks for that too. It's not common though for sure.
Yeah, I'm sure they're out there, but it's very rare in my experience. I'm a micro-brain when it comes to cracking software, and I've almost never encountered this, whether it's small fry software or something from Microsoft or Autodesk. There was some software with debugger detection I came across once (can't remember which it was), but that's the kind of thing where lots of existing workarounds often exist by other crack-ers.
I'd recommend taking a look at DRM for games. It's been a while since I read anything, but AFAIK Denuvo is still effective enough to protect newly released games for weeks.
If I was a much younger man, I would gladly spend weeks or months out of my life to try and break a Denuvo protected game. haha
(again, for the mere intellectual challenge, not to take profit away from someone's work)
I've spent some years in gamedev and doing PC versions was a big part of it. I have seen countless attempts at 'code consistency cross-checks' and they all have been defeated. The only thing that came close was Denuvo. You may want to read up on it before dismissing it. It's sad that folks here will downvote and hate anything about it. What it changed is that publishers got their money from people playing on PC and some of it was spent on developers to actually improve future games =)
I wouldn't dismiss Denuvo. It is intended for a particular use case, which is games where a week or more delay between the release of a game and the appearance of a crack would make a meaningful difference. The payoff wouldn't be nearly the same for a lot of other software.
Both fortunately and unfortunately, this situation may change as AI models and workflows tailored around reverse engineering improve.