Which is the best software to detect protections on a certain CD???

WhatWhat · #1 12-11-2003, 09:39

Lately, clony XXL is not finding any protections in games such as commandos 2, warcraft 3 frozen throne, max payne 2....

I am sure that these games have protections but I insert the cd into the drive and non of the cds have protections. This is what clony says,

"no protection/unknown protection"

I also have protection ID buut this is not very usefful since u can find the protection once the game is installed. eg. Max payne 2 is 3 cds and when I scan the installed exe file, I get that the game is pprotected by securom. But how do I know what cds out of the 3 of them has that protection.

I just want to know what protection the cd has so I can make a direct copy using alcohol 120% and alcoholer.

Anyone know what program I can use to do this

krondike · #2 13-11-2003, 00:57

There are some trick you can do. To see what protection it is on the cd. By not using a tool.

SecuROM:
All SecuROM protected CD, have "SonyDADC" label in there cirkel on the CD. it's small lether so might need a big glasses or good eye

SafeDisc:
All SafeDisc have temp files on it, but SafeDisc one have .icd files can be found directly in the CD.

SafeDisc 2, well you can scan the .exe file all SafeDisc 2 protected CD have there .exe unpacked. But there are also 1231415.tmp and so on.

SafeDisc 3, it's says that they also have write a singanture on the CD inner cirkel..should be label something, SafeDisc, Macrovision, Macrovision SafeDisc or something.

TippeX · #3 13-11-2003, 06:30

Quote:

Originally posted by krondike

SafeDisc 2, well you can scan the .exe file all SafeDisc 2 protected CD have there .exe unpacked. But there are also 1231415.tmp and so on.

jesus krondike yet again, misinformation, if you are going to give information out at least make it accurate.. safedisc2 has
many little *.256 or *.016 files in the root directory of the cdrom, these are infact the bitmaps used for the splashscreen, the tmp files are most definately not called 1231415.tmp, more like 0000001.tmp... also the exe is not unpacked on the cdrom

krondike · #4 13-11-2003, 08:24

Quote:

Originally posted by TippeX
files are most definately not called 1231415.tmp, more like 0000001.tmp... also the exe is not unpacked on the cdrom

Why do you always pick on me. The number I wrote was random.
Say one name that are SafeDisc protected from 1 to 2 that's dosen't have .exe file extracted?

TippeX · #5 13-11-2003, 13:58

i dont mean to always pick on you, just some of the information you give is misleading and in some cases plain wrong, and typing the number at random maybe you and i know what it means, but believe me you'll see some noob actually looking for that filename when trying to detect the protection

safedisc 1 has the .exe and the .icd, the .icd file is the real exe encrypted.. the .exe file is simply a loader / memory place holder where the original code is decrypted to (from the icd file)

in safedisc 2 they did away with this method and changed it into one exe, with 2 sections (stxt*) where the * = 771 and some other number that i cant remember atm, 374 maybe, anyhow the exe is still encrypted, by changing the entrypoint to their loader code, which then decrypts files from the appended data on the exe, loads dlls, does the cdchecks, decrypts the exe, fixes it up then executes it..

so neither have the exe 'extracted' per se

krondike · #6 13-11-2003, 15:56

Quote:

Originally posted by TippeX
so neither have the exe 'extracted' per se

What I mean with "extracted" was that it isn't bundle in to .cab file or other type of package. That's mean that the .exe file that's are copied to he's folder when the game are installed, is always found on the CD. And can be scanned with Protection id. He ask for tips how to dectect protection without install the game... have I explain so everyone's understand now?

TippeX · #7 13-11-2003, 19:55

ah, extracted had a completely different meaning for me, although i do remember there have been some games that were sd2 that the exe was actually packed in the cab file, although i admit its quite rare for this to happen

krondike · #8 14-11-2003, 01:31

Quote:

Originally posted by TippeX
there have been some games that were sd2 that the exe was actually packed in the cab file, although

Only the game that I think I've seen inpacked with the setup (But I'm not realy shure), it's Operation Flashpoint. But the setup it's SafeDisc protected 2... so..it's complitate each other..

If the setup protected with Setup you still must use SafeDisc2 profile to read and write. (alcohol 120%)

ByteMare · #9 14-11-2003, 03:53

TippeX, what about SD3? I read at cdfreaks that they implemented some "virtual machine" to protect the code from being tampered with, what the hell is that? I can't analyze it since I don't have any sd3 games (yet)

TippeX · #10 14-11-2003, 08:45

yep they did do a little virtual machine thingie, and yep its a pain in the ass to reverse hehe

sd3 games :

3.10.20

Call Of Duty
Empires (not sure on full title, exe is empires_dmw.exe)
Fifa 2004
The Return Of The King
Vegas Make It Big

3.15.10

Alexandra Ledermann 4

none of which seem to have any updates pending currently so if you want to analyse some sd3 games you'll have to get the exe's from some other way