d2kessay.htm: Reverse Engenering The Protections From WestWood

Reverse Engenering The Protections From WestWood
by zoltan
(24 September 1999)

CD-ROM faking

Courtesy of Fravia's pages of reverse engineering ~ slightly edited by Fravia+

Reverse Engenering The Protections From WestWood

 (As example: DUNE 2000)

Another Aproach On The CD Check Protection, using ripped version from 
CLASS and the update from WESTWOOD (do FTPSEARCH).

Author   : zoltan
______________________________________________________
Tools Needed :
              Hackers View (HIEW)
              SoftIce
              W32Dasm
Target:
              The patch for DUNE2000
              http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/?form=medium
              and search for d2k106uk.zip

Visit the tools section of our web page: http://protools.cjb.net a nice tool site...

______________________________________________________

This game was/is (being) played alot in the world, and no wonder because this game is from one of the best game companys in the whole world, WESTWOOD. Yeah that's right, the same company that made the smash hit's back in 94-95 if i remember right, Command & Conquer and Command & Conquer 2: RED ALERT. DUNE 2000 was released to the public long ago and has of course been availible for download on the inet since then.

I did some job for you and discovered that Dune2000 isnt the main exe but Dune2000.dat however is the real one, so we start off by running the game, run (dune2000.exe). What happens? A messagebox pops up telling ous to insert the CD. Arg!, let's fix this obvious bug, so we can run it without the CD in.
I personaly dont like this cinda protections, mainly because you cant play over network with your friends (with one cd) and you cant listen to music (if possible) when you play either.
Alright load up the (.dat) in W32dasm, now look at the API imports and se if you can se any CD-Check releated API's like GetDriveTypeA, GetVolumeInformationA, yeah you found getdrivetypea...
I have cracked this before so i will be blind tracing and showing you stuff from W32Dasm, but you can follow in SoftIce if youd like that
Double click on it once/or break on it in SoftIce and we should be landing somewhere around here :

* Reference To: KERNEL32.GetDriveTypeA, Ord:00DFh       <---- Very common in today's cd-checks
                                  |
:004826EA 8B2D48F58C00            mov ebp, dword ptr [008CF548]

* Reference To: KERNEL32.GetVolumeInformationA, Ord:014Fh
                                  |                     <---- Very common in today's cd-checks
:004826F0 8B3D58F58C00            mov edi, dword ptr [008CF558]

* Reference To: KERNEL32.Sleep, Ord:023Fh
                                  |                     <---- lame ...
:004826F6 8B1DE8F48C00            mov ebx, dword ptr [008CF4E8]

* Referenced by a Jump at Address:0048275A(C)
|
:004826FC 8D4C2410    lea ecx, dword ptr [esp+10]   <- esp+10 holds the drive_string it's checking
:00482700 51          push ecx                       - IE: C:\, D:\, E:\ and returns a value in eax.
:00482701 FFD5        call ebp     <- GetDriveTypeA  - HD=EAX=3, CD=EAX=5.
:00482703 83F805      cmp eax, 5   <- compare if the drive we are checking is a CD drive.
:00482706 7546        jne 0048274E <- jump if not ...
:00482708 6A00        push 0
:0048270A 6A00        push 0
:0048270C 6A00        push 0
:0048270E 6A00        push 0
:00482710 6A00        push 0
:00482712 8D542428    lea edx, dword ptr [esp+28]
:00482716 6A64        push 64
:00482718 8D442428    lea eax, dword ptr [esp+28]
:0048271C 52          push edx
:0048271D 50          push eax
:0048271E FFD7        call edi                     <- call getvolumeinformationa
:00482720 85C0        test eax, eax
:00482722 742A        je 0048274E                  <- jump if no label found .. ?

* Possible Reference to String Resource ID=00001: "Dummy for list box "
                                  |
:00482724 6A01                    push 01

* StringData Ref from Data Obj ->"Dune2000CDLabel"  <- Dune 2000 CD Label...so it checks for the 
                                  |                  label on the current Drive (wich is supposed 
:00482726 68CC8B4E00              push 004E8BCC      to be the  CD Drive).
:0048272B E8E0B40000              call 0048DC10
:00482730 83C404                  add esp, 00000004
:00482733 50                      push eax
:00482734 E887B50000              call 0048DCC0
:00482739 83C408                  add esp, 00000008
:0048273C 8D4C2414                lea ecx, dword ptr [esp+14]
:00482740 50                      push eax
:00482741 51                      push ecx
:00482742 E8D9A30300              call 004BCB20
:00482747 83C408                  add esp, 00000008
:0048274A 85C0                    test eax, eax
:0048274C 7418                    je 00482766         <- Jump if it's the same label :)

* Referenced by a Jump at Addresses:00482706(C), :00482722(C)
|
:0048274E 68F4010000              push 000001F4
:00482753 FFD3                    call ebx            <- sleep! this crap is lame ...
:00482755 8BD6                    mov edx, esi
:00482757 4E                      dec esi
:00482758 85D2                    test edx, edx
:0048275A 75A0                    jne 004826FC
:0048275C 32C0                    xor al, al          <- xor al, al = bad cracker go away!
:0048275E 5F                      pop edi
:0048275F 5E                      pop esi
:00482760 5D                      pop ebp
:00482761 5B                      pop ebx
:00482762 83C468                  add esp, 68
:00482765 C3                      ret


* Referenced by a Jump at Address:0048274C(C)
|
:00482766 B001                    mov al, 01             <- mov al, 01 = continue_flag!
:00482768 5F                      pop edi
:00482769 5E                      pop esi
:0048276A 5D                      pop ebp
:0048276B 5B                      pop ebx
:0048276C 83C468                  add esp, 68
:0048276F C3                      ret

Ok, Change :

:00482703 83F805   cmp eax, 5            <- compare if the drive we are checking is a CD drive.
TO
:00482703 83F803   cmp eax, 3            <- Get the hard drive HD

-

And Change :

:00482722 742A     je 0048274E
TO
:00482722 9090     nop                          <- No operational Process...(do nothing)

-

And change :

:0048274C 7418     je 00482766                  <- Jump if it's the same label :)
TO
:0048274C EB18     jmp 00482766                 <- Jump! no matter what :)

Ok we made it on the cd-check routine with the lame label check ...lets try and make the changes permanent with hackersview and run the game. What happends? yes a gay messagebox poping up telling us "Oh No! Cant open movies it cant find the movies. Al right, run it again but this time put a break on MessageBoxA, when it breaks you just backtrace the call and simply nop it, coz you are inside of the movie playing routine. So now it wont even look for the movie's it will just go pass the whole crap. ;) Also i must admit that I dont know if there where any more protections in the original game exe, coz you know this is the patch im working on, but i dont think so.

The Movie Routine Call (read the text below before trying to understand it):

:0048D92C C605B878510001          mov byte ptr [005178B8], 01
:0048D933 E8285BF7FF              call 00403460                 <- that's the one ...
:0048D938 83C404                  add esp, 00000004

Change :
:0048D933 E8285BF7FF              call 00403460
TO
:0048D933 9090909090              nop

Special greets to: BMonkey, Carphatia, Fravia+, Neural_Noise ...

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