How Do Cracks Work to Defeat Shareware Protection?
The mechanism by which a crack brings about changes in program functioning depends largely on what type of crack it is. It’s often useful to categorize cracks into two main groups, based on how they function. There are cracks that that work WITH the program’s protection schemes, and there are other cracks that work AGAINST the program’s protection schemes. A patcher is a (typically) small executable file that changes a specific number of bytes at one or more specific locations within one or more targeted program files. Crack patchers target areas that control functioning of the program’s protection mechanisms, and in altering these areas they effectively bypass or inactivate the protection. Because patches must operate with great specificity in order to avoid disruption of program functioning, they are usually effective ONLY for one particular version, release, or build of a program. The user of a patch must therefore always pay close attention to version information and never use a pa
