07.14
How many people download pirated programs on the internet? Pirated programs always include a keygen or a crack to open the protection of the commercial software. But, do you realize that most people do not know that keygen and crack are very dangerous against a computer?
Sometimes people do not know that when they use a crack or a keygen, they also run malicious programs such as worm, trojan, virus, or spyware. Here I provide a screenshot of a registry scan in my computer after I run the keygen.exe.
In the screenshot above, I use Process Monitor to see the process tree from file keygen.exe. As you see, they altered the registry. In some cases, they are not only alter the registry but also create a hidden backdoor, planted into the DLL which will connect silently and you will never realize it (unless you use some utility tools like TCPView). Moreover, they steal private data such as passwords, credit cards information, product keys, capture keystrokes, capture login information, upload our private documents, etc.
So, do you still want to download pirated programs?
Think before click..
What about cracks? Do they do the same things that Keygens do when running them, like the example you gave?
of course they do .. check this paper, one of many techniques to hooking some malicious actions on the running process or PE file http://www.exploit-db.com/download_pdf/17802