Ah, so the after some user from the cracking scene publically announced to attempt cracking Poseidon on the Mediator list, others are going to try this too and speak up to spread some more bull_shit?
Looks like you're at least good at using a hex editor :-D
> So am I correct in presuming that the Poseidon USB stack contains code which can damage the Amiga Harddisk contents and thus inflict criminal damage?
No, of course not. That's the Elbox way. Poseidon does not contain any harddisk damaging code as this would be illegal.
For those who don't remember 2002 see
http://www.ann.lu/detail.cgi?category=forum&file=1036967791.msg and
http://www.ann.lu/detail.cgi?category=news&file=1037284738.msg for how Elbox had illegal harddisk trashing code in their softeare.
And Elbox of course denied this:
http://www.elbox.com/news_02_11_13a.htmland then accused me of being a cracker, see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Amiga-Mediator/message/14464> What would happen if a part of the stack or even poseidon.library would become corrupt. Would it misinterpretate this as a cracking attempt and hose your entire harddrive?
That's exactly what could have happened when using Elbox software. Poseidon does not contain code that would do permanent damage to anything in your system.
So you want to know why this message is there? On 02.11.2003, a cracker posted instructions on how to crack Poseidon on several mailing lists. From the next version of Poseidon, attempts to crack Poseidon in this way would simply output this message (as a joke). The specific byte string to search for according the instructions was planted there and only these bytes are checked for modification.
So, to make it easier for you: No, there are no routines that will jump at you when you try to crack Poseidon, it's not hard either. There are no self-integry checks or such. Just go on and make my day.
Thanks for your dramatized posting, it was good for a laugh. So if somebody would please forward my posting to the Mediator list (or just a link to this posting), so that folks would calm down, it would be appreciated.
Edit:
Overlooked that funny quote here:
> How many people with USB hardware and the Poseidon stack have potentially already lost harddisk and partition information mysteriously?
Heh, you should ask Elbox exactly that question ;-D Ah and thanks for bringing the topic up for those who seemed to have forgotten or never learned about it.
Edit 2: Looks like Elbox, masters of censorship, just closed the Mediator list for public reading, so you cannot read their falsifaction of the(ir) truth anymore.
But here it is again, I still had the message in cache:
ELBOX COMPUTER
http://www.elbox.comKrakow, 18 November 2002
[html version:
http://www.elbox.com/news_02_11_18b.html]
Elbox against piracy
Dear Users of Elbox products for Amiga computers,
We have seen a number of statements posted in recent days, whose authors devote
their precious time and energy to spreading twisted and untrue information on
Elbox and our products. We are presenting here our official position in
reference to their falsification of the truth.
Elbox is a fully-fledged business entity. We design, develop, produce and sell
hardware and software for Amiga computers. We follow a very fundamental rule in
our business: if we decide to publicise any information, it is already certain,
tested and true. Not always can we write directly what the reader would like to
know (due to trade and marketing secrets, IP confidentiality and the signed NDA
documents), but you always can rely on our information.
To give you a clear picture of the current situation, we have decided to publish
this statement.
SPIDER USB DRIVER CRACKED
The whole affair was initiated by a person who publicly confessed committing a
computer misuse offence. That person admitted that he had cracked one of our
drivers. After illegal obtaining, decrypting, disassembling and modifying of our
driver, the cracker discovered code in the driver, which was part of the
anti-piracy safeguard.
Yes, we use anti-piracy safeguard measures. They are well thought, thoroughly
tested and carefully included in our software and hardware. Obviously enough,
they are completely safe for legal users of our software. Our anti-piracy
safeguards are aimed solely against crackers and people who want to use cracked
software. The disclaimers enclosed with our software openly state that any
modification of our drivers is forbidden. Whoever breaks the law and steals our
intellectual property must be aware of committing an act of illegal nature.
We consider cracking activities as highly condemnable and punishable, yet the
anti-piracy safeguards we use never go beyond the limits of the law in force.
The effects of activating our anti-piracy safeguard measures will NEVER result
in unrecoverable losses: either in hardware or in the data.
RDB FACTS
How does it relate to the cracked USB driver in question? The only result of
activation of the anti-piracy safeguard in the cracked code is overwriting the
first RDB sector of the booting hard disk. This first RDB sector, named RDSK,
does not contain ANY user data. This sector does not contain ANY information
about disk partitioning, either. What is stored in this sector is only
information about the model and parameters of the hard disk and technical
information available in another part of the RDB. When the RDSK sector content
is overwritten, recovering is quite simple. No backup copies of this RDB sector
are necessary. All the information to be included in the RDSK sector can be read
from the hard disk with HDToolBox software, even if this sector is completely
overwritten. The five
minutes of work needed to restore the RDSK sector does not seem to be a heavy
punishment for stealing and/or cracking software...
RDSK STRING REMOVED
Our fully legal anti-piracy safeguard lost its purpose when information about it
was spread among crackers. Therefore, its code has been removed from all our
drivers to Mediator and Spider, and all registered users have received
appropriate updates.
LEGAL USERS ARE ALWAYS SAFE
Our anti-piracy safeguards are COMPLETELY safe for legal users of our software.
They may affect only those, who attempt to crack our drivers for the purpose of
using them for hardware (other USB PCI cards and other PCI solutions) not
supported by us, and persons who would use such cracked software.
COOPERATION--YES, COMPETITION CHEATS--NO
Under such circumstances, only users of hardware other than supported by Elbox
may not feel safe using cracked Elbox drivers. We do protect our intellectual
property and anti-piracy policy employed by Elbox is part of the process.
The loud misinformation campaign started recently in some news lists was
inspired mostly by people related to producers of other hardware and persons who
do not own Elbox hardware.
The question remains: Why would we leave our hard-worked software open for other
developers? Why would we provide them with efforts of long hours of our work and
testing without them spending even a fraction of our expenditures on
development? In the long run, legal users of our products would have to pay for
it, but we do not want to increase our prices only because other developers
would want to lay their hands on results of our work for free.
We are always ready for fair-play cooperation, but we will not agree to and we
will fight back-door and illegal activities.
WE SUPPORT ALL OF YOU
We hope that our explanations will clear away all doubts resulting from this
wide campaign against us. Still, we are really amazed how strongly people
sympathise with crackers... A cracker may only harm your data, as he is not
aware of the complete development and programming process, which takes weeks or
months and includes thorough testing and verification procedures. Remember
please, that a cracker will never take any responsibility for his 'creation.'
Those of you who have purchased our products have trusted us. Your decision was
100% good. We do expand our work for you. We will never let you down when you
have new ideas or just want to solve your problems. We always give you a
competitive edge over other products available in the Amiga market.
Those of you who have tried our hardware and software know the feeling of peace
and certainty. Those who only jump around in the lists will never have this
feeling. Laugh at them, be happy that at the time when they are so uneasy you
may quietly go ahead and work out your own way with Elbox products.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR ENERGY
Do not talk or listen to people who are not interested in acquiring Amiga
hardware or software. These are not real users, they are puppets of other
producers who cannot make their own decisions and who subdue to persuasion of
their 'upperdogs.' They are not interested in you or in helping you, because
they have no knowledge or willingness to be part of the Amiga community
benefiting from using Elbox hardware and software.
BE POSITIVE AND SUPPORTIVE
Instead, whenever you can, talk to Amiga USERS, who do not have Elbox products,
and communicate your first-hand experience with our designs and software. They
are underprivileged due to their clinging to other solutions and we all want to
be the best performers. When we all unite, this small world of Amiga may again
be flourishing and then we all will share the advantages.
Please notify us about piracy (including owning or sharing Elbox software
without the bundled hardware) at anti-piracy@...
Mariusz Wloczysiak
ELBOX COMPUTER, Press Department
contact: press@...
