Cracking the password

bjb007 · Post by **bjb007** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:44 am

I've been asked to update a Rev
stand-alone and the client doesn't
have the code.

Decompiled it (the easy part) but
the stack is pass-word protected.

Dictionary says "set the stack's
password to empty" but can't think of
a way to do this.

Perhaps something in the Message Box?

Any help appreciated.

malte · Post by **malte** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:36 am

No reasonable Rev coder will help you with this one. If it was so easy to remove the password protection, they were absolutely useless in the first place, no? If there was a method to remove the password and somebody posted it here, be sure this thread would be gone in milliseconds.

If the client can not get hold of the password, he will need to ask the party that originally wrote it, or if it was himself try hard to remeber the password. You will be able to set the password to empty only if you set the passkey to the appropriate password first.

All the best,

Malte

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:46 am

Hi bjb007,

I have to agree with Malte on this one - no reasonable rev coder would help you crack the password on someone elses stack.

If your client bought the software then they probably do not have the legal right to change it in the first place.

If the client contracted a 3rd party to write some bespoke software for them, then they should go back to the original author and request the source code --- under most consultancy contracts they will own the source code as well as the executable.

Regards,

Tim.

bjb007 · Post by **bjb007** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:03 am

In this case the client does own the software.
The original coder can't be found and
the client didn't know there would be a password
required and wasn't given one.

So under the circumstances my request wasn't
unreasonable - except for asking publicly rather
than privately.

BTW is there any known way to make a Rev
standalone less easily decompiled?

Janschenkel · Post by **Janschenkel** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:55 am

Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer - and copyright, author right and software license laws may vary between countries and states.

The ownership of the software depends entirely upon the contract between your client and the original developer. If the developer didn't sign over the ownership to your client, then your client would only have a license to use it as is, in compiled form, without any rights to the source code.
When a developer builds software, he automatically has the author right and copyright of the code, and must explicitly sign it over to the other party - even if you are an employee, the contract should state that copyrights go to the employer.

And even then, the developer retains author rights which means that no one else can claim that they wrote that piece of code, and a few other things aimed at preserving the pride of the author in his work.
The building of software involves the use of the original developer's intellectual capabilities, and as such will likely contain trade secrets that the developer learned in the past.

In short, just because you ask someone to build software for you, doesn't make it automatically and wholely yours.

And in this particular case, your client will probably have to find some way to track down the original developer. If this proves impossible, and he has an iron-clad case proving the ownership of the source code, the only one he can turn to is Runtime Revolution Ltd.

Jan Schenkel.

FourthWorld · Post by **FourthWorld** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:33 pm

As Jan noted, the general rule applied in most nations who are signatories of the Berne Agreement is that the author of a work is its copyright holder until such rights are explicitly transferred.

In the US however (and possibly elsewhere; I'm no expert on these matters), applying a "work for hire" definition may grant the original copyright to the person who hired the contractor to write the code. Determining whether this particular case meets the definition of "work for hire" under US law is not something I would dare to guess, but the guidelines for such determinations are available here:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ09.pdf

Of course if the client has an agreement signed by the original programmer explicitly transferring ownership to the client then there's no question about who owns it at all. That is, if such an agreement makes explicit mention of source code as distinct from object code and includes both.

Personally, if someone asked me to crack another's protected work, my first question would be why those two aren't on speaking terms in the first place. Obviously they were communicating well enough at one point for the work to have been delivered, and then something happened. That "something" may be relevant for future contractors as well.

Did the programmer supply the password at the time of delivery? Was the client unaware that the code was protected? If the client feels entitled to the source code, why didn't they simply ask for it when the rest of the work was delivered?

Mysterious. These questions may have good answers, but that things are in such an untidy state would make me cautious about managerial effectiveness if nothing else.

The Rev community is at this stage still a relatively small world, esp. among those who do contract work. There's a chance I may know where to find the original programmer. I've been very active in this community since before v1.0 more than a decade ago, and have had a wide range of correspondences with a good many other contract programmers. If that would be useful feel free to contact me off-list.