Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

54716 readers

185 users here now

⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others

Loot, Pillage, & Plunder

📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):

💰 Please help cover server costs.


Ko-fi	Liberapay

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

101

How is pirating software a thing? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

100 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I understand that sharing video, photos, documents etc. is relatively safe because the data is not executed in the processor as instructions. How come people are willing to download and install pirated software though? How can one be confident that it does not contain malicious addons? Are people just don't know the risks? Or are there protection mechanisms that I am missing? I mean since the software is usually cracked there is not much use in comparing checksums with the originals, is it?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

One of the techniques is called buffer overflow. Where you target a flaw in some software. Computers are logic, they will do EXACTLY what you tell them. Imagine if an image viewer uses an dll to process jpg. That dll expects a very specific header. If this is not handled correctly and a malicious attacker crafts the header to be slightly larger and the larger part contains executable code. This code spills over in the adjacent memory area. The OS then reads this as code to run.. and boom you are in.

This is oversimplified and proberly not explained correctly, but its something like that; and that kids, is why its important to update your OS and software.

Sometimes they find bugs like this, that have existed for many years before being discovered.