Hacking is a natural need of many sentient beings. They pass along the thorny path of understanding the true essence of surrounding things, bent on destruction. Just look around: Atomic scientists split atoms, analysts split long molecules into lots of smaller ones, and mathematicians actively use decomposition. And not one of them deserves reproach!
Hacking is not the same thing as vandalism. Hacking is the demonstration of natural curiosity and desire to understand the surrounding world. Disassembled listings, machine commands, black screens of SoftIce that are reminders of the early days of MS-DOS—all these are interesting and captivating. Among them is the entire world of hidden mechanisms and protection code. Do not look for them on the maps; this world exists only in fragments of printouts, technical manuals automatically opening at the most interesting positions, and, of course, sleepless nights spent at the monitor.
This book is neither a manual on cracking nor a manual on antihacker protection. Such books are already available in abundance. Rather, this book contains the “travel notes” of a code digger. You’ll examine Intel’s compilers, look inside the protection mechanisms of commercial programs, and learn how the debugger works and how to work with it expertly. In general, if you are not so afraid that you immediately close this book and throw it away, you’ll learn many new and interesting facts.
About the Author
Casually-dressed young man (age 28) who doesn’t pay attention to the surrounding world or his own body, dwelling exclusively in the jungle of machine codes and maze of technical specifications. Unsociable. Leads the secluded life of a predator rodent that practically never leaves his hole (unless it is to look at the stars). Has a luckless private life (and unlikely that it will become lucky in the future), so the only method of killing time from dusk until duskier is to be fully absorbed by work.
I’ve been obsessed by computers since childhood (or even earlier—unfortunately, I can’t recall). Mainly, I specialize in reverse engineering (disassembling), finding vulnerabilities (holes) in existing protection mechanisms, and developing my own protection systems. Nevertheless, computers are not my only and, perhaps, not my main passion. In addition to being concerned with the hardware and wandering in the jungle of the protection code, I am never far from the night sky and my telescopes. I read many books (and even write ones). Recently, I have been writing more than reading. The hacking motives of my creations are not simply luck. They are the result of natural curiosity in “what’s under the hood” of a computer and a desire to crack something using a crowbar or hammer (figuratively, or course). Is it possible to understand otherwise how this thing works?
If hackers are individuals obsessed by understanding the universe, then I am a hacker.
