Protect! EXE/COM v.5.0 (C) 1993,1994 Jeremy Lilley All Rights Reserved ***************** Bug Fixes/Updates **************** Protect! EXE/COM v5.5 March 22, 1995 This release adds integrated compression for both COM and EXE files, and the resulting Protected file will be much more random (and uncompressible) due to a better encryption algorithm. * The integrated compression may be disabled with the -N command line switch. Protect doesn't compress nearly as tightly for some files as with some compression-only programs, so you may want still want to run other compression programs on your file before using Protect. * UNP 4.10 and other deprotection programs (some of which worked and some of which only claimed to work) don't work on newly Protected files. * An embarassing bug that could cause the system clock to lose 13-14 seconds each time a Protected file was run (sorry people!) is now taken care of. * For OS/2 users, an instruction that prevented files from loading properly in the background has been eliminated. * If you do try to debug through the Protected files, it should be much harder with a much more random security envelope and some new anti-debugging mechanisms. * The entire security envelope (minus a hundred bytes or so) is now Protected from modification instead of just the file's contents. * A few sequences that caused virus scanners to label Protected files as virus-contaminated have been rooted out. If you do have any problems of this sort, please contact me right away, but usually, if you re-Protect the original file, the problem will go away. * A bug that caused some EXE files to gain up to 8-16k has been fixed. * You now may layer copies of Protect on top of each other, but it will start to slow down loading quickly this way. Protect! EXE/COM v.5.0 2/12/94 I released v.4.0 a little too soon, and I wasn't careful enough to catch all of the bugs in v.4.0 (intermittently, Protected files would not work after being Protected, which could be a major inconvenience to deal with). I finally trashed the v.4.0 headers and rebuilt v.5.0 headers from scratch, dumped and replaced the old mutation engine that was used, and tightened up security a bit: * Now files DO NOT need to be compressed with a compressor before being Protected, eliminating reliance on external protectors. However, Protect! still does not compress the files itself. Furthermore, it is still highly RECOMMENDED that you DO use a compressor to speed up loading and to decrease storage size; it just isn't required anymore. * You can still layer multiple levels of Protect! on top of a file, but don't go crazy doing it, because the new security envelopes are a bit slower with the longer keys - if you have 100 layers of Protect! on top of a file (yes, it is possible...), you'll notice the slowdown in load time. * Since the mutation engine that I wrote for v.5.0 is no longer the hit-and-miss one that was included in v.4.0, you should notice that Protect! v.5.0 works much more consistently than previous versions. * Finally, in rewriting the headers, I sacrificed a little speed for security and, even more importantly, compatibility. I have not had any compatibility problems in beta testing, and it should be significantly more difficult to crack Protect! v.5.0 programs. * I've made many smaller changes and made Protect more aware of Windows/OS/2 files that it can't Protect. Hopefully, Protect! 5.0 should run smoother and more securely than ever before. * I've also bundled MarkEXE v.2.0 with Protect. See MarkEXE.Doc for details. * Finally, I've moved. (I could have released v.5.0 a month earlier, but the moving has delayed quite a few things, including Protect!) I'm hoping that not that much will be lost in the confusion, but here's my new address: Jeremy Lilley Re: Protect! EXE/COM 2711 Oakview Circle Medford, OR 97504 (email is still the same: 75060,2074) Protect! EXE/COM v.4.0+ 10/30/93 This is the *ultimate* (and hopefully final) upgrade for Protect! - Here are some of the new features: * Added a polymorphic mutation engine to Protect! - In other words, the security envelope is MUTATED so that it changes for each file you protect. This was done to combat master unprotect programs (such as UNP) from being made, making your Protected programs much more secure. * Rewrote loader in assembly language and completely rewrote security envelope. Thus, the new protected files load more than 4 TIMES FASTER. Also, because everything was written in assembly language, PROTEXCM.EXE encrypts much faster (especially for PKLITE programs) and is less than half as big in disk size. * Allows multiple Protecting of EXE files, so that you can optionally have many layers of "ice" to make a hacker's job harder. * Now supports many types OVERLAYS, and it is much more technically stable than any previous version. * Automatically searches for a file called "CRC.MSG" as your default CRC error message file. You can still specify other CRC error message filenames, but you don't have to. If no CRC error message file is specified and CRC.MSG doesn't exist, a CRC.MSG will be created. Note: This concerns REGISTERED USERS ONLY. * The encryption screen in PROTEXCM.EXE has been streamlined, and in interest of speed, everything happens in 4k rather than 256 byte blocks, which may make the status bar more jagged. * A few things were taken out of Protect: * Starting Messages are no longer used or allowed - they were found to be mostly useless and even then too confusing to use. * The directory listing menus (interactive mode) were not included in this version of Protect! because they were clumsy, and really only suited for preliminary and testing uses of Protect. Protect! EXE/COM v.3.1 8/26/93 This was written mainly as a bug fix and a smaller step up, but here is some of what I fixed: * Took out the font enhanced screens of v.3.0. They caused way too many problems and for some people, caused their systems to crash or screwed up their screen modes (*sorry*!). * Added support for Diet executable file compression. * You no longer have to type the extension of the file to be protected. * Made Protect! more compatible with some PKLITE files. * Slightly optimized for better performance in the security envelopes at the cost of slower initial protection. (The files in this package are also smaller). If things have been going well for you with v.3.0, you really don't need to worry too much about this upgrade. Protect! EXE/COM v.3.0 7/22/93 Here are some of the new features for version 3.0: * The security envelopes have been entirely redone and rewritten and have had new anti-debugging techniques added to them. (haven't you heard this before?) * UNP ver.3.11 cannot deprotect Protect! EXE/COM v.3.0. * OVERLAYS are more tolerated and some types that could be compressed with PKLITE can now be protected (sorry, but still not every overlay). * REGISTERED users can CUSTOMIZE THE CRC ERROR MESSAGES and optionally add a message to output when loading. * No password is required (or asked for). * The interface has been improved (especially for EGA monitors). * A DOS ERRORCODE of 250 is returned on a CRC abort. * You can now not have any parameters and SELECT THE FILE FROM A DIRECTORY LISTING, having Protect! automatically compress the file with a file compressor or just run things from the command line (BAT and MAK files in particular). Protect! EXE/COM 2.0 5/31/93 This copy has many security additions added to it. Loader code and data is encrypted along with the regular encrypted program code. Earlier versions have had a few vulnerable spots in them but are for the most part safe. Both the COM and EXE loaders have been revamped and there is more than one specific model for each loader. A few changes were made so that the files will load a little faster also. Also, a few cosmetic changes have been made to the actual program, but for the most part, the changes were focused upon the loader's speed and security. This version is much improved over previous versions partially due to letters and comments from a few hackers and programmers. Weaknesses (particularly in the COM files) were pointed out and greatly improved upon, so thanks to everybody who wrote about Protect! EXE/COM!!! On the side note, you may now have spaces in your password (you don't need underscores anymore)! Protect! EXE/COM 1.1 4/26/93 This copy has been released to fix a bug that occurs on some earlier XT computers when run. There is one instruction in the header that is not recognized by the "genuine" 8088's and 8086's, but is only recognized by the NEC V20, NEC V30, as well as the 286 and above. Since the XT that I tested this on used the NEC V20 (8088 compatible chip with a few enhancements) instead of the true 8088, it did not catch that error as a true 8088 would have. Thanks to an alert user in Virginia, the error was quickly caught and remedied (it took less than a half hour to fix), and now Protect! EXE/COM v.1.1 will work on all XT-class computers. Protect! EXE/COM 1.0 4/15/93 First release!