Leaving debug information in the binaries The default compiler settings leave more information in the binary than you want someone to have. Especially for Mac compiled binaries, the amount of contained information is dangerous. Try to inspect your compiled binary with a hexeditor or load it into the free version of IDA Pro and scroll through it. It is not […]
Finding a Travel Laptop
I wanted to get a cheap notebook that i can use while travelling. My requirements were the following: Possibility to run Linux or Windows 8.1 (not RT) Minimum 4 GB RAM SSD of at least 128 GB Dual Core x86 CPU Enough power for 720p x264 video playback Maximum weight 1,5 kg The ACER Aspire V3-371-57S2 (600 Eu) or Microsoft […]
How to detect if your Windows application is running under Wine
In 2005, Microsoft started the anti-piracy initiative called Genuine Advantage. To be able to download from Microsoft Download Center, you would have had to pass the validation. It was the first time that Microsoft acknowledged the existence of Wine, by blocking its access to the downloads if a Wine specific registry key was found by the ActiveX control or their […]
Creating small executables with Microsoft Visual Studio
Starting with an empty project, I will show you how to use Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 to compile your C code without the usual bloating that the compiler adds automatically. This article will just feature C code, I may extend this blog entry for usage with C++ at a later point. In the empty workspace, create a new file called […]
Creating small executables with Qt Creator and MingW
Starting with an empty Plain C Project in Qt Creator IDE and gcc from MinGW as compiler, I will show you how to generate small binaries that are independent from MinGW dlls. At the writing of this article the app versions that I used were Qt Creator 2.6.2 with Qt 5.0.1 and gcc 4.7.2. Replace the code of the main.c […]
Creating the smallest possible Windows executable using assembly language
Using nasm, we can build the smallest possible native exe (without using a packer, dropper or anything like that) file that will work on all Windows versions. This is what one of the possible solution binary looks like: The code for this little cutie: IMAGEBASE equ 400000h BITS 32 ORG IMAGEBASE ; IMAGE_DOS_HEADER dw “MZ” ; e_magic dw 0 ; […]