Cloned Boy
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You all know this team of reverse engineers. This is probably the only known team that makes normal cracks of American software (acunetix, burp suite pro, etc.). These cracks are used by bughunters, whitehat, real Russian hackers. Usually these guys do not give interviews, but after looking at our blog and through whom we contacted, they decided to devote time to us. Many thanks
sky is one of the best reversers in Russia. It was he who made the acunetix crack.
zen - as I understand it, the administrator, owns the cyberarsenal.org forum
Disclaimer!!! (the guys asked me to write) the answers to the questions were given not by the whole Pwn3rzs team, but only by sky and zen. Other reversers may have a different opinion.
Interview specially for the best blog on information security in Russia - https://t.me/mirea
Our chat: https://t.me/GreyHatChat
sky: Hi. I'm sorry we don't do many interviews right now, just because we're not special or anything, but we're just doing this so everyone can get tools and knowledge about cybersecurity. I can answer, but that doesn't mean the answer reflects the thinking or experience of the entire group. Also, sorry, but we don't accept ADS of any kind here, even paid ADS, because we don't want to be involved in money matters.
KnightPentest: Okay, please tell us how you started? How did you become the best reversers?
sky: Since we are a band, everyone started their own path. Also, we are not good/bad at reverse, we are just passionate about the topic, which is quite interesting and a nice daily challenge.
KnightPentest: Have you ever had any problems with the vendors of software you cracked?
sky: For those who don't know, we haven't had any major issues lately (aside from the known issues with the old founder of kyRecon , h0nus , and other things). But luckily, most of the requests to remove some cracks were kind and respectful, so we decided to stop releasing *our* work in this software, like the guys at Binary Ninja.
KnightPentest: Your favorite books or articles to read about reverse/information security.
sky: Mine is "Practical Reverse Engineering" and it's pretty well done and always helpful. It's also perfect for those just starting out as it will help you understand what you're missing and what you need to learn to continue reverse engineering. Other than that, it's just a matter of getting started, even in other areas of cybersecurity , and then getting back on the reverse engineering path. All that matters is passion, curiosity, dedication and time. There are no perfect guides or articles, it's all about wanting to understand the deep fundamentals of computers, from hardware to software. I also recommend trying out a lot of cracksme or writing your own software and then trying to reverse engineer it.
I hope this has met your needs and questions, but remember these are my ideas and views and not the whole group's, although we may share some things we are not all the same. Have a nice day and sorry for the late reply, but we have been very busy lately
KnightPentest: Thank you very much. Now questions for your boss - zen.
Do you communicate with Russian reversers? How good are they?
zen: I don't think we have an agreement in the team about things like interviews, and I generally prefer anonymity, but the short answer is that (1) we have Russian reversers in the team, and we respect their skills.
KnightPentest: How do you feel about your software being used by some APTs?
zen: We prefer not to deal with apt/malware and have only done so where it overlaps with red-team usage or for educational purposes. We don't provide material support to crime any more than the original software authors did (for example, the shellter author sold his software to criminals for profit, as evidenced by the exploit.in sales threads etc.), but even in that example we didn't even release a cracked shellter and that crazy guy attacked us for half a year.
KnightPentest: Have there been any cases where your clean cracked software was injected with malware by attackers (not your team). How did you respond to such incidents?
zen: We don't track what people do with our releases, other than warnings to only trust our direct releases, and to always run programs on virtual machines or vps, regardless of source.
KnightPentest: Let's say I'm a developer. How can I protect my software from being hacked?
zen: as for developer protection, i personally think that cracking is currently defeated, but people just don't talk about it - see sandboxie for example. no one cracks it because the protection is in the signed driver. you would have to subvert the entire windows driver system or have a special patch that can be overridden by any update, just to have the crack. i did it for my own use, but it was a pain in the ass and i gave up. but on the other hand, if too many software authors do it, then more people will invest time/effort into being able to get around the signed driver issue.
KnightPentest: Is reverse engineering expensive? What do you need for it, besides knowledge and a computer?
zen: No, it's not expensive, a person can go very far with x96debug and a hex editor.
KnightPentest: Thank you so much for sharing this useful information and taking the time to talk to us. You are awesome!
https://t.me/GreyHatChat/275/5136
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Ninja
https://crackmes.one/faq
sky is one of the best reversers in Russia. It was he who made the acunetix crack.
zen - as I understand it, the administrator, owns the cyberarsenal.org forum
Disclaimer!!! (the guys asked me to write) the answers to the questions were given not by the whole Pwn3rzs team, but only by sky and zen. Other reversers may have a different opinion.
Interview specially for the best blog on information security in Russia - https://t.me/mirea
Our chat: https://t.me/GreyHatChat
Interview with the Pwn3rzs(sky&zen) team
KnightPentest: Hey guys! I have prepared a small number of questions for you and I would really like you to answer them. This can help our newbie reversers become better. We can even pay you if you promote the interview among your own.sky: Hi. I'm sorry we don't do many interviews right now, just because we're not special or anything, but we're just doing this so everyone can get tools and knowledge about cybersecurity. I can answer, but that doesn't mean the answer reflects the thinking or experience of the entire group. Also, sorry, but we don't accept ADS of any kind here, even paid ADS, because we don't want to be involved in money matters.
KnightPentest: Okay, please tell us how you started? How did you become the best reversers?
sky: Since we are a band, everyone started their own path. Also, we are not good/bad at reverse, we are just passionate about the topic, which is quite interesting and a nice daily challenge.
KnightPentest: Have you ever had any problems with the vendors of software you cracked?
sky: For those who don't know, we haven't had any major issues lately (aside from the known issues with the old founder of kyRecon , h0nus , and other things). But luckily, most of the requests to remove some cracks were kind and respectful, so we decided to stop releasing *our* work in this software, like the guys at Binary Ninja.
KnightPentest: Your favorite books or articles to read about reverse/information security.
sky: Mine is "Practical Reverse Engineering" and it's pretty well done and always helpful. It's also perfect for those just starting out as it will help you understand what you're missing and what you need to learn to continue reverse engineering. Other than that, it's just a matter of getting started, even in other areas of cybersecurity , and then getting back on the reverse engineering path. All that matters is passion, curiosity, dedication and time. There are no perfect guides or articles, it's all about wanting to understand the deep fundamentals of computers, from hardware to software. I also recommend trying out a lot of cracksme or writing your own software and then trying to reverse engineer it.
I hope this has met your needs and questions, but remember these are my ideas and views and not the whole group's, although we may share some things we are not all the same. Have a nice day and sorry for the late reply, but we have been very busy lately
KnightPentest: Thank you very much. Now questions for your boss - zen.
Do you communicate with Russian reversers? How good are they?
zen: I don't think we have an agreement in the team about things like interviews, and I generally prefer anonymity, but the short answer is that (1) we have Russian reversers in the team, and we respect their skills.
KnightPentest: How do you feel about your software being used by some APTs?
zen: We prefer not to deal with apt/malware and have only done so where it overlaps with red-team usage or for educational purposes. We don't provide material support to crime any more than the original software authors did (for example, the shellter author sold his software to criminals for profit, as evidenced by the exploit.in sales threads etc.), but even in that example we didn't even release a cracked shellter and that crazy guy attacked us for half a year.
KnightPentest: Have there been any cases where your clean cracked software was injected with malware by attackers (not your team). How did you respond to such incidents?
zen: We don't track what people do with our releases, other than warnings to only trust our direct releases, and to always run programs on virtual machines or vps, regardless of source.
KnightPentest: Let's say I'm a developer. How can I protect my software from being hacked?
zen: as for developer protection, i personally think that cracking is currently defeated, but people just don't talk about it - see sandboxie for example. no one cracks it because the protection is in the signed driver. you would have to subvert the entire windows driver system or have a special patch that can be overridden by any update, just to have the crack. i did it for my own use, but it was a pain in the ass and i gave up. but on the other hand, if too many software authors do it, then more people will invest time/effort into being able to get around the signed driver issue.
KnightPentest: Is reverse engineering expensive? What do you need for it, besides knowledge and a computer?
zen: No, it's not expensive, a person can go very far with x96debug and a hex editor.
KnightPentest: Thank you so much for sharing this useful information and taking the time to talk to us. You are awesome!
Additional information to study:
https://codeby.net/threads/writeup-crackme-by-vx_ret.83645/https://t.me/GreyHatChat/275/5136
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Ninja
https://crackmes.one/faq
