How to crack a (non App Store) MacOS app? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 11 months ago by FuzzyGrumblebee@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

There's a troubleshooting application for MacOS I'd be happy to buy, but the developers only offer it as on a subscription model, which is unacceptable. If I'm going to buy software, I'd better be able to own it and still be able to use that version in 10 years. Subscription is the worst of both worlds -- pay for the thing, but don't get to own it.

I couldn't find a crack of it on torrentmac.net, so now I'm itching to try cracking it myself. I have the free trial downloaded and installed but it expires in a couple weeks. Any tips?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] skankhunt42@lemmy.ca 28 points 11 months ago

Cracking means decompiling the files, debugging the code and finding the bits that check if you have a key/subscription and changing it in such a way that it passes. Not exactly something you can learn from scratch quickly.

[-] FuzzyGrumblebee@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Wow I didn't know it was even possible to decompile compiled code. I know how to code and debug, but you're right this is a big step past my current skills. And of course wouldn't you know it, the decompiling tools for mac are very expensive and aren't available to torrent either. This might be a dead end for me.

Well, thank you, I learned something today.

[-] andrew@radiation.party 6 points 11 months ago

Generally you can’t reverse it into exactly what was written, but most of the time you can disassemble or decompile just about any program as long as the binary format is known. The legibility of the resulting unraveling may vary depending on language and any methods used to obfuscate the end binary.