Solution by WebMarginal on 2025-05-23 20:05: Analysis Approach
I began by examining the program using IDA Pro, focusing on key verification functions. Initial static analysis revealed anti-debugging measures and string constants related to serial key validation.
The main validation function was identified at address `0x1400140D0`, which implements a non-trivial algorithm to verify user-provided serial keys.
Key Verification Algorithm
The algorithm enforces the following constraints:
1. The key must be exactly 10 characters long
2. All characters must be alphanumeric
3. The program calculates a checksum value `v4` using each character's ASCII value:
v4 = 0
for j = 0 to 9:
v4 += ((j + 5) ^ ASCII(key[j])) - 3*j
4. The key is valid if and only if: `(v4 ^ 0xDEAD) % 997 == 133`
The Go implementation was chosen for its speed and efficiency, allowing for rapid testing of millions of key candidates. The keygen employed a random search approach, though more optimized techniques could be used for faster results.
Results
After checking approximately 43.4 million candidates, a valid key was found:
- Key: `dyqqustupp`
- v4 value: 1072
- (1072 ^ 0xDEAD) % 997 = 133
Manual verification confirmed this key passes all validation checks in the CrackMe application.
Security Assessment
The key validation scheme employs several interesting techniques:
- Modular arithmetic with a large prime (997)
- XOR operations with a magic constant (0xDEAD)
- Position-dependent character processing
- Anti-debugging countermeasures
However, the algorithm's security relies on obscurity rather than cryptographic strength. With sufficient computational resources, valid keys can be discovered through brute force, as demonstrated.