16 Jan

Happy 2024!

To start new year on a positive note, here's a new version of my Enigma Virtual Box unpacker.

Added detection Enigma Virtual Box v10.40 and 10.50.
Added support for Enigma Virtual Box v10.60.

Big thank you goes to everyone who reported issues with my tools. I really appreciate it!

Have a great year!

05 Mar 2023

Updated Enigma Virtual Box unpacker (again)

Enigma Virtual Box unpacker

There are few minor fixes:

Now it can unpack Enigma Virtual Box versions 10.20 and 10.30;
Correctly detects some old and rare versions of Enigma Virtual Box;

29 Jan 2023

Enigma Virtual Box unpacker

There are few minor fixes:

Properly detects Enigma Virtual Box versions 10.00 and 10.10;
Correctly unpacks zero-size files. Thanks to David for the bug report;

12 Aug 2022

How security plugins for Autoplay Media Studio fail, pt.2

Few weeks ago I wrote an article about misunderstood security in Autoplay Media Studio plugins. Two days later, author of DCrypto plugin released an updated version of the plugin. And just recently, he started to sell his plugin by making some pretty bold claims:

I present to you DCrypto with an advanced encryption that allows you to obfuscate your LUA 1.5 code in 256 Bit encryption with one of the best encryptions on the market, in addition to optimizing your source code, it will be protected with super protection.

Let's see how super this protection really is! smile
Read More →

19 Jul 2022

How security plugins for Autoplay Media Studio fail

Every once in a while I encounter a strange anti-reverse engineering protection. Protection authors are so focused on improving one specific aspect of the protection that completely overlook other, much easier ways how the system can be defeated.

Their logic is like this - someone stole my code, I better protect it. I've heard that cryptography is good, so I'll use that. Oh no, someone stole my code again! Let me add another layer of encryption over it! Few days/weeks/months later - Those bloody hackers won't stop! Let me protect my encryption code with another encryption!

Facepalm.

What the authors should do instead is stop and think. What do I want to protect? Against whom? For how long? What kind of loss is acceptable to me?

Update of unpackers

Enigma Virtual Box unpacker

There are plenty of changes.

Properly detect versions 9.50..9.90
Unpacks files packed with 9.80 and 9.90
Added command-line parameter "/nodiskspace", as requested by some users. If it crashes during unpacking because it ran out of disk space, it's your problem.
Unpacker properly handles invalid input filename

Molebox 2.x unpacker

Support more versions of very old Molebox
Unpacking files with digital signatures should be improved
Some rare bugs have been fixed

Autoplay Media Studio unpacker

Added support for AMS version 8.5.3.0.
Support for Imagine MemoryEx encrypted files, as requested by someone.

What is MemoryEx?

MemoryEx is a plugin released by Imagine Programming, allowing for more advanced operations from within the Lua environment you will find in Autoplay Media Studio 8.

While it's not a very common plugin, there are several niche programs which use this plugin. For example, most programs from dindroid.com use it.

When you unpack such file, please pay attention to the "Found protected file" messages:

As you can see, unpacker created some .luac files.

Next, you will need to find a LUA decompiler and decompile these files. I suggest you try unluac, luadec or whichever LUA decompiler you prefer.

Decompiler should produce .lua file which contains all the interesting stuff. For example, part of G-Nerator code looks like this:

return {
  info = {
    name = "Anderson M Santos",
    author = "dindroid.com",
    contact = "andersonnsantos36@gmail.com"
  },
  functions = {
    Install = function()
      function Stile_Sonbre_P()
        sHandl = Application.GetWndHandle()
        DLL.CallFunction(_SystemFolder .. "\\User32.dll", "SetClassLongA", sHandl .. ",-26," .. 131072, DLL_RETURN_TYPE_LONG, DLL_CALL_STDCALL)
        if Label.GetText("local") == "C:\\" then
          Label.SetText("local", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid")
        end
        Image.Load("imico", _TempFolder .. "\\icon.tmp")
        Image.Load("imc", _TempFolder .. "\\bts_01.tmp")
      end
      function Install()
        Folder.Create(_ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator")
        File.Copy(_SourceFolder .. "\\Install\\*.*", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator", true, true, false, true, nil)
        sP = System.EnumerateProcesses()
        for j, file_path in pairs(sP) do
          file = String.SplitPath(file_path)
          if file.Filename .. file.Extension == "GNerator.exe" then
            File.Copy(file_path, _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator\\")
          end
        end
        Shell.CreateShortcut(String.Replace(_WindowsFolder, "Windows", "") .. "\\Users\\Public\\Desktop", "G-Nerator", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator\\GN.exe", "", "", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid\\G-Nerator\\GN.exe", 0, SW_SHOWNORMAL, nil, "")
....

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return {

info = {

name = "Anderson M Santos",

author = "dindroid.com",

contact = "andersonnsantos36@gmail.com"

},

functions = {

Install = function()

function Stile_Sonbre_P()

sHandl = Application.GetWndHandle()

DLL.CallFunction(_SystemFolder .. "\\User32.dll", "SetClassLongA", sHandl .. ",-26," .. 131072, DLL_RETURN_TYPE_LONG, DLL_CALL_STDCALL)

if Label.GetText("local") == "C:\\" then

Label.SetText("local", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid")

end

Image.Load("imico", _TempFolder .. "\\icon.tmp")

Image.Load("imc", _TempFolder .. "\\bts_01.tmp")

end

function Install()

Folder.Create(_ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator")

File.Copy(_SourceFolder .. "\\Install\\*.*", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator", true, true, false, true, nil)

sP = System.EnumerateProcesses()

for j, file_path in pairs(sP) do

file = String.SplitPath(file_path)

if file.Filename .. file.Extension == "GNerator.exe" then

File.Copy(file_path, _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator\\")

end

Shell.CreateShortcut(String.Replace(_WindowsFolder, "Windows", "") .. "\\Users\\Public\\Desktop", "G-Nerator", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid" .. "\\G-Nerator\\GN.exe", "", "", _ProgramFilesFolder .. "\\Dindroid\\G-Nerator\\GN.exe", 0, SW_SHOWNORMAL, nil, "")

....

That's all folks, have fun using it!

As always - if you notice any bugs, please report them. And most importantly - Happy New Year everybody! smile

04 Sep 2020

Hacking resources for fun and no profit, part 1

In this article I'll show how I made VMWare Workstation 15 awesome again using a little-known Resource Hacker feature called "scripting".

But first, a bit of background..

Upgrade of VMWare

People who know me know that I prefer stable, tried-and-true solutions. Be it my primary operating system, the tools I'm using or things I eat for breakfast. Once I know that something is good, I don't want to change it.

So, for a long time I was using VMWare Workstation 10. It just worked. But as the new versions of Windows came out, they started requiring hypervisor to support some specific features. Otherwise it just won't work. For example, to be able to install Windows 10 1803, you will need VMWare 14.x. To install Windows 10 1903, you will need VMWare 15.x.

And so, after a long time of holding out, I decided to upgrade.
Read More →

21 Jul 2020

July update for Molebox unpacker

Thanks to szx, unpacker can now extract huge (2GB+) embedded files. smile

Also, some of the unpacker messages were removed and/or changed. If you're using de-mole-ition with automated scripts, you might want to double-check those.

19 Jun 2020

Another update of Molebox unpacker

Thanks to Cristiano, I was finally able to add support for another old version of Molebox 2.x. While working on that, I found and fixed few other bugs in the unpacking, so really - thanks a lot! smile
Read More →

10 May 2020

Update of unpackers

I'm trying to get back into reversing. Slowly.

So, here's a long-promised update to Molebox unpacker. It fixes unpacking of very, VERY, VERY old Molebox versions. The only file I have ever seen packed with it, is SCWU role playing game.