Crackproof Your Software: Protect Your Software Against Crackers (With CD-ROM) [Paperback]

Pavol Cerven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

This essential resource for software developers highlights the weak points in "well-protected" software, shows how crackers break common protection schemes, and how to defend against crackers. Includes in-depth discussions of anti-debugging and anti-disassembling. The CD-ROM contains compression and encoding software, debuggers and anti-debugging tricks, practical protection demonstrations, and extended examples from the book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...an excellent read." -- LinuxLookup

"A must-read for shareware programmers who want to protect their work. Comprehensive and well-written coverage of the topic." -- About.com, February 2004

"You can hold off the crackers a good long time with the ideas in ... [this] book by No Starch Press." -- Gerard Beekmans, DevChannel.org

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Czech

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press; Pap/Cdr edition (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886411794
• ISBN-13: 978-1886411791
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,622,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More of a FAQ than educational, June 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Crackproof Your Software: Protect Your Software Against Crackers (With CD-ROM) (Paperback)

It's great that there's a book like this out to begin with, but I was disappointed to see the focus only on Windows applications and mostly on how to use existing tools to harden your software. It doesn't really cover as much as I would have liked to have seen on how to actually implement crack-resistant software. Much of the book's contents are FAQ-like and refer only to currently available tools (a very current practical approach versus a broader theoretical academic approach). If the exact problem you're trying to solve is explicitly addressed in this book, you're golden - if not, you're completely out of luck with regards to the book's information.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of cracking prevention, September 12, 2004

By 

William Jackson - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crackproof Your Software: Protect Your Software Against Crackers (With CD-ROM) (Paperback)

Before I read this book I knew very little about cracking software. After reading this book I still know very little. I agree with the author when he says that to protect yourself, you need a good understanding of what you're up against. It also helps when you apply a protection method if you can check it against something. The book falls way short of teaching you ways to crack software.

However, I gave this book a good rating because I think it does a good job of giving the reader an overview of methods he can use against crackers. It covers disassembly detection, registration protection, use of dongles, CD copy protection, and compressing and encoding executables. It also provides a CD with several freeware/shareware programs you can use to protect your software. Keep in mind that the book deals exclusively with the Windows operating system.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Human Ingenuity (Spy vs. Spy), April 2, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crackproof Your Software: Protect Your Software Against Crackers (With CD-ROM) (Paperback)

Much of current software defenses against crackers consists of preventing or detecting breakins to your computer from across a network. The cracker is inherently at a disadvantage. For one, you (the sysadmin) have physical access to your machine. You can reboot it at will; compare signatures of installed programs against known signatures that are stored readonly; and you can install network analysers and other computers to check your main machine.

But there is an entirely different cracker activity where she now has built in edges. This consists of where you write code that others can install on their computers. Your code can end up on a cracker's machine. She has (you have to assume) a good deassembler and decompiler, and is fluent in the assembly language of your code.

You don't have it easy. Cerven explains the many measures you might take to protect the running of your code. Alas, for most of these, if not all, over time, a sufficiently talented cracker can find a countermeasure. The book is a tribute to human ingenuity. As a purely intellectual puzzle, you may find his explanations intriguing.

He describes a small cottage industry of companies that offer licensing programs that try to control access to your code. The best known may be installshield. This is very common on Microsoft platforms. Also mentioned is flexlm, which unix sysadmins should find familiar.

The bottom line is given in the last chapter. A list of suggested best practices. None of which are guaranteed to offer absolute protection. But the cumulative applications of these practices should act as a good deterrent.

The only thing that seems to be missing is a discussion of code that comes on DVDs. He describes CDs. Surely by now some large code packages must come on DVDs. (Especially the games.)