Dumping Armadillo 3.0-3.6 without CopyMem II

Ok, I'm back after having read alot more tutorials. The difficult thing with
this program is that it is for a school reverse engineering project and so the code is not with me at home, I only work on it at school. The file is protected by one of the later versions of armadillo (after 3.6) and I've confirmed that it has no copymem protection. You're right about the nanomites....they don't exist in this case..... I got confused on that part.

The trouble I am having with setting the BP on the first section after the
PE header is that after a few exception, instead of the program hitting the breakpoint it hits the Armadillo screen to "Enter your Serial number". There is no option to skip this section, like in Ricardo's 65-123LogAnalyzer tutorial. If I cancel, the program exits. So the breakpoint is never reached.

I tried to set a breakpoint on IsDebuggerPresent (both hardware and memory).....never reached that either. However, I did rename Ollydbg and I am using the IsDebug Plugin. I have set breakpoints on other API calls I've found in strings searches... so it is not me being a moron.

Thanks for the info on the Call EDI, I will try that now.
dc

[MaRKuS-DJM]

when i read your post, i can say the CALL EDI method won't succeed. it uses armadillo-registration... never cracked any target with this registration-method, so i can't help you, sorry. i don't know if it is possible to unwrap this type of armadillo without valid key

I think I might have mislead you with my last post. The messagebox that
appears gives option to either click "OK" to proceed to enter name and serial or click "cancel" and program exists. It doesn't specifically say Armadillo anywhere. If I click "Ok" then I enter the standard "Enter Key" messagebox where it has fields to enter a Name and Serial.

Is this the same thing you were referring to or do you think the Call EDI method will still work in this case? I guess I'll give it a shot in the morning unless you think it is a complete deadend.

[JMI]

Rather than trying for a new post edit your first post with the name of the target, which is allowed here. Click the Edit button in that first post and add something like:

[EDIT: Target is targetname, download URL.]

Drag your cursor over it and click the "B" button so it is noticable. Then anyone interested can take a look at the actual program and see what you are seeing and whether you have missed some step or issue.

Regards,

I would like more info on this target also. If this is a reversing project then I think a valid key would be supplied. If no key then its more like a cracking project to me. I went through few targets protected with Armadillo 3.75 and when it asks for the code, it doesn't say "Armadillo" anywhere but you can tell its Armadillo after seeing few message boxes from other targets that are protected by Arma.

What I learned about Armadillo is, you first must get passed the Code that validates the code. If the target is protected correctly, the code that you want to dump is not even decrypted yet until you enter a valid code. I was never able to crack/bypass this myself but I seen a Loader that was specifically written for a program that fakes your hardware id to one that you have the key for. So this explains why your breakpoints don't work because the code flow never gets to the OEP.

Your first step is to deal with the Window asking for the Code. Then you can go about dumping.

I also noticed that some targets I messed with got a strange Error in Ollydbg that said "Don't know how to bypass command at address xxxxxxxx..." If you get this message to bypass it press Shift + F9. And also remove all breakpoint on such targets before your first run (F9). Once you get that Error, then place the breakpoint (bp IsDebuggerPresent) and Shift + F9.

I hope this helped a little.

I guess it is a cracking project then ;-) I got more info from the guy who setup the lab and it is simply Armadillo 3.75 with minimum protection, but with a mandatory key.

Since the code is only at school, I can't post a link, etc. However, I tried to
duplicate it by downloading the trial version of Armadillo and wrapping a simple application like calc.exe and then creating my own mandatory key.

Everything looks identical, except somehow I didn't obfuscate the OEP?? When Ollydbg loads the program, it identifies it right away, however just like the other program it never reaches the OEP and I'm stuck in the comparison routines trying to get past the key. Don't know what happened there.

I'm currently trying two methods:
1. What karlss0n recommended by setting the breakpoint, except in my case
GetWindowTextA isn't used, so I need to find the equivalent
2. Use the program that I wrapped with Armadillo and the known name/key
combo to give me clues to bypass the check.

[JMI]

Another possibility is GetDlgItemTextA. I believe there are also other API used for fetching the text from a dialogbox. I'm reviewing some other material and if I come up with some others, I'll edit this post.

Also be aware that there are secondary API to both these API calls, designed for 16 bit programs. The, of course are:

GetWindowText
GetDlgItemText

and, of course the other 32 bit API are

GetWindowTextW
GetDlgItemTextW

and well it is less likely they are being used in a current version of a program, which sounds remarkedly like one of the chemistry programs with online database and such, one can always make a quick and painless check.

So you could cover all bases with:

:bpx GetWindowText
:bpx GetWindowTexta
:bpx GetWindowTextw
:bpx GetDlgItemText
:bpx GetDlgItemTexta
:bpx GetDlgItemTextw

And there is also:

GetDlgItemInt

Translates the text of a specified control in a dialog box into an integer value

Here's a handy API reference regarding these issues:

http://www.nikse.dk/win32api.html

Regards,

[Mkz]

If those functions aren't called, you might try going one step further down the chain the way those Get* do:
Find the hwnd of the text box, and trap the WM_GETTEXT message.

If you still don't catch it, in this forum you'll also find stuff regarding "point-H", or "Punto" in spanish.