Best Free Cracked Software Websites
Avast Antivirus 2019 Crack is an antivirus that needs no introduction in by doing this it’s NIL grateful by its clients for giving best protection system. It’s many features of privacy software that’s too simple. Cracksfiles is a hub of unlimited softwares and applications for all kind of operating systems. Download free mobile applications for ios and android free of cost. Nov 29, 2016 Best websites for serial keys and cracked software's 2016 (MUST WATCH) There are many software that are not exactly paid that they are freely available on internet to download.
#1ExtraTorrent
Extratorrent is a free website to download and seed torrent files for various electronic resources. Downloadable files include movies, music, software, program, applications, e-books, documents, and many more.Free
Jane PorterWritten on January 11, 2018'I can find the software I need here, but it's not legal. That said, my download went pretty smoothly so I'll still give it 4 stars!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#2The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay (TPB) is the world biggest torrent website wherein each day they provide 10,000 new files and offers free download for audio, video, application, games, and others. Swedish think tank Piratbyran founded it in 2003.Free
Jessica BishopWritten on June 25, 2018'Not saying I would recommend torrenting, as it could illegal depending on where you live, but The Pirate Bay is great if you don't care about all of that. It has music, tv, movies, software, games, ebooks, and lots of other great stuff. It's one of the most well known torrent sites.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#3Roots Crack
Roots Crack is a website where users can download cracked software for free. In the website, users can also download cracked game installers and other utility programs.
Free
John MarkWritten on January 13, 2019'rootscrack.com provide full version windows and Mac Cracked Software as well they help with video, how to Crack the software they are good.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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Other stuff you might like..
DID YOU KNOW?
Some software copyright holders asked Google to remove 100,000 pirate links every hour from its search results. In an article written by Ernesto on Torrent Freak published on March 6, 2016, the data gathered from Google’s Transparency Report shows that a soaring number of URLS are reported to be directing users to websites that offer illegally cracked software. To back this up, Revulytics released a report in 2017 that shows a rising 39% rate of piracy worldwide. Factors such as exorbitant prices of licensed software can attribute to the significant increase in piracy rate in the previous year. Clearly, one of primary reasons why users resort to pirated or cracked software is because of the price—not everyone is willing to pay for the price of a certain software and so they would find ways (or tools) on how to get it for free. Known software such as Adobe and Mircosoft are greatly useful especially to students, beginners, and starters, and a cost-efficient access will always be a better option for them.
On the other hand, cracked or pirated software offers hazards and threats to you and your device. The answer to whether cracked software is illegal or not starts when you infringe a copyright. In some countries, like USA and UK, developers take legal actions against it, but in some countries, it is legal. Another downside of it is the cracked versions do not upgrade, and you will not get any support thus you cannot access or install new features about it. And lastly, you can easily get your device infected by malware that is disguised as software, so be sure to get anti-virus installed on your device!
#4Kickass Torrents
Kickass Torrents, also known as KAT, is one of the oldest and most powerful torrent search engines of the world, offering movies, series, ebooks, music, software and much more where you can download via uTorrent.
Free
Jonathan WongWritten on January 16, 2018'This place used to be great, but it's really gone downhill. Way bigger proportion of files are straight broken now, lots of malware all around. You'll need a bunch of blockers to safely browse the site too. Selection of stuff that actually works is still there but just not a pleasant experience.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#5TorrentFunk
TorrentFunk is a website which features various torrent files for downloading music, movies, TV series, ebooks, anime, software, and many more. This torrent site was launched in 2011.
Free
Nancy WarrenWritten on December 7, 2018'BEWARE! THIS SITE HAS PORN ADS. But then if you really want to download cracked files/softwares then visit this site and take the risk of seeing those ads. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#6Cracked Root
Cracked Root is a website wherein users can download various cracked software for Windows and Mac devices. The site also offers operating system activators for Windows and Antivirus software.
Free
Naveed HussainWritten on January 8, 2019'Crackedroot.com they offer clean instructions,and provide working and clean links, But If you are still looking Cracked Software I am here, I will help for to cracked any software with video and I will send working download links.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#7RARBG
RARBG is a website to browse and find torrents for downloading various media resources online such as movies, television shows and series, software, music, applications, books, and so on.
Free
Roger HopkinsWritten on January 23, 2018'RARBG is a website that provides free torrents for file sharing. They offer many categories of content, ranging from movies to games and is continually updated and support. They also have a lot of content to check out.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#8Torrent Downloads
Torrent Downloads is a BitTorrent download source that allows users to download TV shows, movies, games, music, software, books, anime, and more for free. The site also accumulates the most downloaded, seeded, and leeched torrents.
Free
Harini MehraWritten on January 14, 2018'This site is like all others, it is a thieves paradise. If you are into stealing software from the developers this is the place for you. Really!! Just get a job and but your own software and support the hardworking people in the design field.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#9LimeTorrents
LimeTorrents is a verified BitTorrent website where users can download movies, TV shows, music, games, and more for free. It can be accessed without the need to sign up for an account to the website.
Free
Hannah CurtisWritten on December 7, 2018'What i like about LimeTorrents is that it does not have any racy and annoying ads unlike most torrent sites. However, it does not have a category for software. But then most of the software i look for here are always available for download. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#10YourBittorent
YourBittorent is a hit torrent hub which provides torrent downloads of movies, television shows, comics, games, music, and software for free. An account registration is not required to access this.
Free
Diana ZhongWritten on December 7, 2018'i dunno if i will recommend YourBittorent for to get cracked software. Why? Because this site has porn ads. Well, let's admit torrent sites usually have porn ads but in here it is the most lewd i have seen its like a video ad. SMH'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#11iDope
iDope is the official torrent search engine. It is safe and untrackable. It offers a free and quick download for anything. iDope has a clean website design that is good for easy navigation.
Free
Mary MorganWritten on January 23, 2018'I gotta be honest i never heard about idope not until i saw this here. It does have a wide selection of cracked software to download. But yeah you need to install the torrent first because it isn't a direct download site. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#121337x
1337x is a top torrent site for providing quality videos, movies, music, comics, and even series. It has a stylish website interface that user would enjoy the easy search of anything they want to download.
Free
Albert BakerWritten on January 15, 2018'I love downloading pirated software but sometimes it can be hard to find a reliable site. I came across 1337x and have used it as a wonderful guide since then! It lists every newly released torrent in a simple and efficient manner. It lets me sort by release type and I can even search for the newest releases. It even guides me to where to actually find the torrents.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#13MK'sOrb
MK'sOrb is a website which offers you a large selection of cracked software for Windows and Android. You can choose from different categories: antivirus, security, drivers, editors, emulators, VPNs and utility tools, among others.
Free
Masum KhanWritten on April 25, 2018'The most reliable and worked cracked windows software I found here - https://mksorb.com/windows/ . And I never saw the similar website. I highly recommended visiting this website for once.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#14World Free Ware
World Free Ware is a website that offers a huge catalog of apps and software for Windows, Mac, and Android to download for free. To stay up with the latest news on downloadable software and apps, you can subscribe to its newsletter.
Free
Universal EngineWritten on March 24, 2018'this is best website for free software without torrent.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#15isoHunt
isoHunt is a BitTorrent and peer-to-peer torrent website to browse and find torrents for downloading various media resources online such as movies, television shows, and series, software, music, applications, and so on.
Free
Brandon SmithWritten on January 12, 2018'My friend wanted to know if you could actually get cracked software online. I told him you could but it is illegal. I showed him isoHunt.to. He was amazed how easy it is to get anything he wanted. It was really simple and easy to search for whatever.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#16ACMarket
ACMarket is a community fully dedicated to cracked Android apps. The users crack and share apps constantly for allowing others to download them in just a moment. If you are looking for a huge catalog of cracked apps, this choice seems perfect for you.
Chura liya hai. Android
Free
David ÁvalosWritten on December 7, 2018'First let me just say that ACMarket is not a site where you can download cracked software but rather it is an Android app where you can get cracker/modified apps and games for Android devices. So this isn't really a good solution for this problem :ll'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#17A2ZCRACK
A2ZCRACK is a website to download the cracked versions of various software and apps such as operating systems, Internet browsers, media players, computer games, mobile games and apps, and so on.
Free
Russell StanleyWritten on September 28, 2018'This is exactly what im looking for on this list!! has all the possible cracked softwares i could ever need (and never afford to buy)'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#18Cracked Win
Cracked Win is a website where users can download paid programs for both Windows and Mac-operated computers for free. Users can get cracked software from the site without the need for an account.
Free
Jones WebWritten on January 27, 2019'When a person required the Cracked Software and cracking is the modification of software to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software. Now, I have recommended the free cracked website is Crackedwin.com'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#19YTS
YTS.AG is a torrent website that's been proven strong. It boasts a hefty amount of movies and a great interface makes it super easy to get download your torrents quickly. The torrents you can mainly find on this site are for films.
Free
Bryan MunozWritten on January 21, 2018'I took a look at YTS.AG and I thought it was a bad resource. The site was poorly designed and the site seemed to be hosting malware.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#20HD Torrent Movies
HD Torrent Movies is a popular torrents sites for downloading a variety of movies such as Bollywood, Hollywood, Hindi Dubbed, Tamil and Telugu movies in high quality. The site also categorizes movies according to date of release.
Free
Sanvi PatelWritten on January 13, 2018'The site has a lot of movies to offer, they are mostly Hindu. For this genre I would say this may be the best there is if this is the type of movies you are looking to download.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#21TorrentRoom
TorrentRoom is one of the best comic book torrent sites with a solid torrent community, and even though the site is a bit old-school looking, it has a lot of solid comic book torrents to download. *NO LONGER AVAILABLE*
Mario CorderoWritten on December 7, 2018'It is a good thing that this website is no longer available because based on the previous comment his site has been compromised. So if i were you just look on this list for other cracked software sites. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#22CyberPiratePC
CyberPiratePC is a website for downloading free cracked software. It offers full versions of various programs like screen recorders, PDF readers & download managers. The products have serials, keycodes, and even the latest patches. *NO LONGER AVAILABLE*
AnaX The RipperWritten on September 11, 2018'CyberPiratePC is a very good site to download Cracked for PC.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#23World Wide Torrents
If you were a fan of Nemesis43, the biggest comic uploader on KickAssTorrents, you'll probably like World Wide Torrents. Nemesis has since moved on to World Wide Torrents. The site offers a diverse selection of media; including e-books, anime, and even textbooks. *NO LONGER AVAILABLE*
María OrtegaWritten on January 16, 2018'I couldn't even rate this solution as the site would not load for me. I'm guessing though, like they say, if you like KickAss torrents (and who didn't?), you would like this site as well. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#24Torrentz
Torrentz was founded by flippy in March 2003 that indexes many active torrents from 32 different domains. It doesn't host any magnet links or digital files but redirects users to other sites on the internet.
Free
Roy KennedyWritten on December 7, 2018'Unfortunately Torrentz is no longer online. Back in those days this was my go-to site whenever i want to get software that are crack because yeah i cant afford to buy those eh. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#25TorrentProject
TorrentProject is a torrent search engine which offers a collection of more than 10 million torrents of movies, games, music, ebooks, and software which can be downloaded with zero restrictions.*NO LONGER AVAILABLE*
Shirley CollinsWritten on January 20, 2018'I dont recommend Torrent Project because the site has been down for awhile now there are better working sites that are still open 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#26GameTrex
GameTrex is a download website which offers its users game downloads free of charge. The site's contents are sorted into different categories, with games ranging from retro-age to modern releases.
Free
Jacqueline WhiteWritten on February 4, 2019'GameTrex has a lot of software listed in their software category! I downloaded Sony Vegas from them for free!'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#27PirateCity
In PirateCity you can find a large selection of full cracked softwares to download for free: office work tools, security and antivirus programs, video and photo editors and more.
Free
Umer KahloonWritten on August 3, 2018'this is the best site to download clean & working cracks for free. it provides premium windows & mac os apps'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#28Get into PC
Get into PC is a website that offers users to download apps for free such as apps related to education and more. This website also has tutorials on how to use software, improve PC performance, and more.
Free
Isaiah EIWritten on October 23, 2018'All softwares contain their cracks accordingly. Downloading is very simple.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#29Softslay
Softslay is a site that offers free downloadable crack software for Windows XP, 7, 8, and 10 as well as anti-virus and internet security software. The crack software site also has download managers, drivers, and data recovery.
Free
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#30RealHax
RealHax is a website which offers free cracked software and apps. The site previews its recent posts and contains a search function. It is also categorized by compatible platforms.
Free
Rana SamiullahWritten on March 3, 2019Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#31MagTors
MagTors is a Torrent hosting website that has over 3 million active torrents. The torrent search tool has torrents for TV shows, movies, games, software, music, and eBooks. It is also categorized by most recent and popular.
*NO LONGER AVAILABLE*
Elisha VavilovWritten on November 9, 2018'Looking for quality cracked software? MagTors has you covered. They offer tons of quality programs ready for download, and no ads to bug you.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#32CrackRules
CrackRules is a website which provides free direct download of cracked software for Windows and Mac including its full serial keys. The cracked software includes antivirus, graphics, downloader and more.
Free
denzy bobWritten on February 21, 2019'It is the best website for students and people with the latest free software and apps solution.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#3301Torrent
01Torrent is a free torrent site where users can download the latest movies, music, television (TV) shows, applications, games, books, animes, software, and many more. This website no longer needs any registration.
Free
torre enteWritten on September 12, 2018'Download latest Applications releases MAC, PC, Android, IOS (Apple), Linux for free on 01torrent.net'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#34CrackRss
CrackRss is a file-sharing website which offers downloadable videos, software, website suggestions, and articles, all free of charge. The page's contents are mostly contributed by its users and can be sorted differently.
Free
Name let's have an EnglishWritten on November 27, 2018'I can't recommend cracked PC software. Installing cracked software one your PC is very dangerous even if you know what you're doing. If you can't be dissuaded, I guess Cracked PC Software is a decent place to download from.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#35Ultra Crack Software
Ultra Crack Software is a website which offers its viewers cracked versions of software which would normally require payments to download and use. The site is available in multiple languages and can be changed easily.
Free
Louis MarshallWritten on November 19, 2018'Ultracracksoft is a website to browse and find crack software for downloading....'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#36SeaofApps
SeaofApps is a website for downloading software for free. It contains the most popular software and categorized by editor's choice. This site also recommends the trending software.
Neme RemaWritten on December 22, 2018'This is the best solution i have found, i easily search for a software, driver or game on seaofapps, and i get results of top sites that offer direct download (non-torrent files,no login prompts, not registration or annoying surveys)'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#37FreeFullBest
FreeFullBest is a website that allows users to download free cracked software for PCs and free games and apps for mobile devices. The site also offers articles about some of the latest tech-related news.
Free
Full VersionWritten on February 28, 2019'Real links to download no fake content or content locker 5 stars from me'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#38PcSoftwares.NET
PCSoftwares.net is a website that offers free cracked versions of software for computers. It offers a wide variety of software from photo-editors Adobe Photoshop and Bibble Pro to VPN programs like Hotspot Shield and Express VPN.
Free
CracKSs DOT NETWritten on August 3, 2018'This Site Provides All Types Of Updated Clean Softwares With Cracks, Keygen, License Keys.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#39MacWinSofts
MacWinSofts - Software Cracks is a website where users can browse and download various cracked software programs, apps, games, and multimedia such as backup and recovery, antivirus, Internet, etc.
Free
denzy bobWritten on February 19, 2019'MacwinSofts is the best site with many software solutions. Students and professionals can get the latest software trial versions with working Cracks and other Activation tools related to their professions for free.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#40Activators 4 Windows
Activators 4 Windows is a website that features cracked Window software that is ready for download. It features activators for Windows 7, 8, and 10. Moreover, i gives tips on how to activate Microsoft Office 2016.
Free
Activators 4 Windows LillyWritten on December 12, 2018'Activators4Windows.com is a Free Windows related platform from where you can Free Download Windows Activators, Loaders and ISO Setups for computer.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#41KickAssCracks
KickAssCracks is a website where you can find the latest cracked software to directly download for free without any annoying ads or surveys. Users can also request crack software which isn't available on the site.
Free
Albert ClayWritten on January 28, 2019'I would recommend kickasscracks.com because these guys are providing working download links and their response time is also good. Unlike other websites that are providing mostly ads instead of download links.'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#42Ultra Software Solution
Ultra Software Solution is a website where users can download various cracked software programs for their computers for free. The site also contains download sections for Android and iOS devices.
Free
Daniel JonesWritten on January 14, 2019'This Site Provides All Types Of Updated Clean Softwares With Cracks, Keygen, License Keys..'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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#43Hit2k
Hit2k is a website to download an array of various software applications such as games, Android apps, downloaders, Internet tools, anti-virus, activators, system utilities, accelerators, browsers, cracks, etc.
Free
Luis Alberto GalvánWritten on December 7, 2018'Hit2k is what i am looking for cracked software sites. I am not really a fan of torrent sites eh because i want direct downloads and i dont have the torrent software installed on my laptop. So thanks to this i can now directly download cracked software. 'Thanks for voting! Please tell us why you like it!
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Software cracking (known as 'breaking' in the 1980s[1]) is the modification of software to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software, especially copy protection features (including protection against the manipulation of software, serial number, hardware key, date checks and disc check) or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.
A crack refers to the means of achieving, for example a stolen serial number or a tool that performs that act of cracking.[2] Some of these tools are called keygen, patch, or loader. A keygen is a handmade product serial number generator that often offers the ability to generate working serial numbers in your own name. A patch is a small computer program that modifies the machine code of another program. This has the advantage for a cracker to not include a large executable in a release when only a few bytes are changed.[3] A loader modifies the startup flow of a program and does not remove the protection but circumvents it.[4][5] A well-known example of a loader is a trainer used to cheat in games.[6]Fairlight pointed out in one of their .nfo files that these type of cracks are not allowed for warez scene game releases.[7][4][8] A nukewar has shown that the protection may not kick in at any point for it to be a valid crack.[9]
The distribution of cracked copies is illegal in most countries. There have been lawsuits over cracking software.[10] It might be legal to use cracked software in certain circumstances.[11] Educational resources for reverse engineering and software cracking are, however, legal and available in the form of Crackme programs.
History[edit]
The first software copy protection was applied to software for the Apple II,[12]Atari 800, and Commodore 64 computers.[citation needed]. Software publishers have implemented increasingly complex methods in an effort to stop unauthorized copying of software.
On the Apple II, unlike modern computers that use standardized device drivers to manage device communications, the operating system directly controlled the step motor that moves the floppy drive head, and also directly interpreted the raw data, called nibbles, read from each track to identify the data sectors. This allowed complex disk-based software copy protection, by storing data on half tracks (0, 1, 2.5, 3.5, 5, 6..), quarter tracks (0, 1, 2.25, 3.75, 5, 6..), and any combination thereof. In addition, tracks did not need to be perfect rings, but could be sectioned so that sectors could be staggered across overlapping offset tracks, the most extreme version being known as spiral tracking. It was also discovered that many floppy drives did not have a fixed upper limit to head movement, and it was sometimes possible to write an additional 36th track above the normal 35 tracks. The standard Apple II copy programs could not read such protected floppy disks, since the standard DOS assumed that all disks had a uniform 35-track, 13- or 16-sector layout. Special nibble-copy programs such as Locksmith and Copy II Plus could sometimes duplicate these disks by using a reference library of known protection methods; when protected programs were cracked they would be completely stripped of the copy protection system, and transferred onto a standard format disk that any normal Apple II copy program could read.
One of the primary routes to hacking these early copy protections was to run a program that simulates the normal CPU operation. The CPU simulator provides a number of extra features to the hacker, such as the ability to single-step through each processor instruction and to examine the CPU registers and modified memory spaces as the simulation runs (any modern disassembler/debugger can do this). The Apple II provided a built-in opcode disassembler, allowing raw memory to be decoded into CPU opcodes, and this would be utilized to examine what the copy-protection was about to do next. Generally there was little to no defense available to the copy protection system, since all its secrets are made visible through the simulation. However, because the simulation itself must run on the original CPU, in addition to the software being hacked, the simulation would often run extremely slowly even at maximum speed.
On Atari 8-bit computers, the most common protection method was via 'bad sectors'. These were sectors on the disk that were intentionally unreadable by the disk drive. The software would look for these sectors when the program was loading and would stop loading if an error code was not returned when accessing these sectors. Special copy programs were available that would copy the disk and remember any bad sectors. The user could then use an application to spin the drive by constantly reading a single sector and display the drive RPM. With the disk drive top removed a small screwdriver could be used to slow the drive RPM below a certain point. Once the drive was slowed down the application could then go and write 'bad sectors' where needed. When done the drive RPM was sped up back to normal and an uncracked copy was made. Of course cracking the software to expect good sectors made for readily copied disks without the need to meddle with the disk drive. As time went on more sophisticated methods were developed, but almost all involved some form of malformed disk data, such as a sector that might return different data on separate accesses due to bad data alignment. Products became available (from companies such as Happy Computers) which replaced the controller BIOS in Atari's 'smart' drives. These upgraded drives allowed the user to make exact copies of the original program with copy protections in place on the new disk.
On the Commodore 64, several methods were used to protect software. For software distributed on ROM cartridges, subroutines were included which attempted to write over the program code. If the software was on ROM, nothing would happen, but if the software had been moved to RAM, the software would be disabled. Because of the operation of Commodore floppy drives, one write protection scheme would cause the floppy drive head to bang against the end of its rail, which could cause the drive head to become misaligned. In some cases, cracked versions of software were desirable to avoid this result. A misaligned drive head was rare usually fixing itself by smashing against the rail stops. Another brutal protection scheme was grinding from track 1 to 40 and back a few times.
Most of the early software crackers were computer hobbyists who often formed groups that competed against each other in the cracking and spreading of software. Breaking a new copy protection scheme as quickly as possible was often regarded as an opportunity to demonstrate one's technical superiority rather than a possibility of money-making. Some low skilled hobbyists would take already cracked software and edit various unencrypted strings of text in it to change messages a game would tell a game player, often something considered vulgar. Uploading the altered copies on file sharing networks provided a source of laughs for adult users. The cracker groups of the 1980s started to advertise themselves and their skills by attaching animated screens known as crack intros in the software programs they cracked and released. Once the technical competition had expanded from the challenges of cracking to the challenges of creating visually stunning intros, the foundations for a new subculture known as demoscene were established. Demoscene started to separate itself from the illegal 'warez scene' during the 1990s and is now regarded as a completely different subculture. Many software crackers have later grown into extremely capable software reverse engineers; the deep knowledge of assembly required in order to crack protections enables them to reverse engineerdrivers in order to port them from binary-only drivers for Windows to drivers with source code for Linux and other free operating systems. Also because music and game intro was such an integral part of gaming the music format and graphics became very popular when hardware became affordable for the home user.
With the rise of the Internet, software crackers developed secretive online organizations. In the latter half of the nineties, one of the most respected sources of information about 'software protection reversing' was Fravia's website.
Most of the well-known or 'elite' cracking groups make software cracks entirely for respect in the 'Scene', not profit. From there, the cracks are eventually leaked onto public Internet sites by people/crackers who use well-protected/secure FTP release archives, which are made into full copies and sometimes sold illegally by other parties.
Free Cracked Software Downloads
The Scene today is formed of small groups of skilled people, who informally compete to have the best crackers, methods of cracking, and reverse engineering.
+HCU[edit]
The High Cracking University (+HCU), was founded by Old Red Cracker (+ORC), considered a genius of reverse engineering and a legendary figure in RCE, to advance research into Reverse Code Engineering (RCE). He had also taught and authored many papers on the subject, and his texts are considered classics in the field and are mandatory reading for students of RCE.[13]
The addition of the '+' sign in front of the nickname of a reverser signified membership in the +HCU. Amongst the students of +HCU were the top of the elite Windows reversers worldwide.[13] +HCU published a new reverse engineering problem annually and a small number of respondents with the best replies qualified for an undergraduate position at the university.[13]
+Fravia was a professor at +HCU. Fravia's website was known as '+Fravia's Pages of Reverse Engineering' and he used it to challenge programmers as well as the wider society to 'reverse engineer' the 'brainwashing of a corrupt and rampant materialism'. In its heyday, his website received millions of visitors per year and its influence was 'widespread'.[13]
Nowadays most of the graduates of +HCU have migrated to Linux and few have remained as Windows reversers. The information at the university has been rediscovered by a new generation of researchers and practitioners of RCE who have started new research projects in the field.[13]
Methods[edit]
The most common software crack is the modification of an application's binary to cause or prevent a specific key branch in the program's execution. This is accomplished by reverse engineering the compiled program code using a debugger such as SoftICE,[14]x64dbg, OllyDbg,[15]GDB, or MacsBug until the software cracker reaches the subroutine that contains the primary method of protecting the software (or by disassembling an executable file with a program such as IDA). The binary is then modified using the debugger or a hex editor or monitor in a manner that replaces a prior branching opcode with its complement or a NOPopcode so the key branch will either always execute a specific subroutine or skip over it. Almost all common software cracks are a variation of this type. Proprietary software developers are constantly developing techniques such as code obfuscation, encryption, and self-modifying code to make this modification increasingly difficult. Even with these measures being taken, developers struggle to combat software cracking. This is because it is very common for a professional to publicly release a simple cracked EXE or Retrium Installer for public download, eliminating the need for inexperienced users to crack the software themselves.
A specific example of this technique is a crack that removes the expiration period from a time-limited trial of an application. These cracks are usually programs that alter the program executable and sometimes the .dll or .so linked to the application. Similar cracks are available for software that requires a hardware dongle. A company can also break the copy protection of programs that they have legally purchased but that are licensed to particular hardware, so that there is no risk of downtime due to hardware failure (and, of course, no need to restrict oneself to running the software on bought hardware only).
Another method is the use of special software such as CloneCD to scan for the use of a commercial copy protection application. After discovering the software used to protect the application, another tool may be used to remove the copy protection from the software on the CD or DVD. This may enable another program such as Alcohol 120%, CloneDVD, Game Jackal, or Daemon Tools to copy the protected software to a user's hard disk. Popular commercial copy protection applications which may be scanned for include SafeDisc and StarForce.[16]
In other cases, it might be possible to decompile a program in order to get access to the original source code or code on a level higher than machine code. This is often possible with scripting languages and languages utilizing JIT compilation. An example is cracking (or debugging) on the .NET platform where one might consider manipulating CIL to achieve one's needs. Java'sbytecode also works in a similar fashion in which there is an intermediate language before the program is compiled to run on the platform dependent machine code.
Advanced reverse engineering for protections such as SecuROM, SafeDisc, StarForce, or Denuvo requires a cracker, or many crackers to spend much time studying the protection, eventually finding every flaw within the protection code, and then coding their own tools to 'unwrap' the protection automatically from executable (.EXE) and library (.DLL) files.
There are a number of sites on the Internet that let users download cracks produced by warez groups for popular games and applications (although at the danger of acquiring malicious software that is sometimes distributed via such sites).[citation needed] Although these cracks are used by legal buyers of software, they can also be used by people who have downloaded or otherwise obtained unauthorized copies (often through P2P networks).
See also[edit]
References[edit]
Best Cracked Software Sites 2018
- ^Kevelson, Morton (October 1985). 'Isepic'. Ahoy!. pp. 71–73. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
The origin of the term probably lies in the activity burglars in the still of the night.
- ^Tulloch, Mitch (2003). Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security(PDF). Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press. p. 68. ISBN0735618771.
- ^Craig, Paul; Ron, Mark (April 2005). 'Chapter 4: Crackers'. In Burnett, Mark (ed.). Software Piracy Exposed - Secrets from the Dark Side Revealed. Publisher: Andrew Williams, Page Layout and Art: Patricia Lupien, Acquisitions Editor: Jaime Quigley, Copy Editor: Judy Eby, Technical Editor: Mark Burnett, Indexer: Nara Wood, Cover Designer: Michael Kavish. United States of America: Syngress Publishing. pp. 75–76. doi:10.1016/B978-193226698-6/50029-5. ISBN1-932266-98-4.
- ^ abFLT (January 22, 2013). 'The_Sims_3_70s_80s_and_90s_Stuff-FLT'.
This can be the only reason you have come to the conclusion that a modified startup flow is the same like the imitated behavior of a protection, like an EMU does it.
- ^Shub-Nigurrath [ARTeam]; ThunderPwr [ARTeam] (January 2006). 'Cracking with Loaders: Theory, General Approach, and a Framework'. CodeBreakers Magazine. Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. 1 (1).
A loader is a program able to load in memory and running another program.
- ^Nigurrath, Shub (May 2006). 'Guide on how to play with processes memory, writing loaders, and Oraculumns'. CodeBreakers Magazine. Universitas-Virtualis Research Project. 1 (2).
- ^FLT (September 29, 2013). 'Test_Drive_Ferrari_Legends_PROPER-FLT'.
Test.Drive.Ferrari.Racing.Legends-SKIDROW was released with a 'Loader' and not a cracked exe. This is why you see the original exe renamed to 'TDFerrari_o.exe'. As this is not allowed and in this case considerably slows down the game with Xlive messages while starting and playing the game, you can see why we have included a proper cracked.
- ^SKIDROW (January 21, 2013). 'Test.Drive.Ferrari.Racing.Legends.Read.Nfo-SKIDROW'.
Yes our 'method' is a loader and our competitors have used the same method for 'cracking' xlive games like this.
- ^'Batman.Arkham.City-FiGHTCLUB nukewar'. December 2, 2011. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014.
UNNUKED: game.plays.full no.issues crack.is.fine no.single.byte.patch.used protection.bypass.means.not.active.means.removed protection.does.not.kick.in.at.any.point this.or.removal.makes.no.difference [ZoNeNET]
- ^Cheng, Jacqui (September 27, 2006). 'Microsoft files lawsuit over DRM crack'. Ars Technica.
- ^Fravia (November 1998). 'Is reverse engineering legal?'.
- ^Pearson, Jordan (July 24, 2017). 'Programmers Are Racing to Save Apple II Software Before It Goes Extinct'. Motherboard. Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
- ^ abcdeCyrus Peikari; Anton Chuvakin (January 12, 2004). Security Warrior. 'O'Reilly Media, Inc.'. p. 31. ISBN978-0-596-55239-8.
- ^Ankit, Jain; Jason, Kuo; Jordan, Soet; Brian, Tse (April 2007). 'Software Cracking (April 2007)'(PDF). The University of British Columbia - Electrical and Computer Engineering. Retrieved January 27, 2018.
- ^Wójcik, Bartosz. 'Reverse engineering tools review'. pelock.com. PELock. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
- ^Gamecopyworld Howto