Valhalla Legends Archive

I was wondering, if somehow, say I make just a quick program and add a number like 10, and then compile it into a exe. And then be able to make another exe, to open the exe and like change the number 10 to 11, and then save it, and have the numbers changed in the exe.

vb6
Thanks

I have no idea what you just said. Something about version changing I believe?

Yes.

Yes. But mostly you'd use an ini file or registry key for your settings instead.

No, I think he means something like.

Program #1:

Private Sub Form_Load()
   Dim OOGA as Integer
   OOGA = 10
End Sub

I think he wants to know how to run program #1 with program #2, and change OOGA to 11 (using program #2).

Quote from: Eli_1 on May 07, 2004, 09:47 PM
No, I think he means something like.

Program #1:

Code Select Expand


Private Sub Form_Load()
   Dim OOGA as Integer
   OOGA = 10
End Sub

I think he wants to know how to run program #1 with program #2, and change OOGA to 11 (using program #2).

Why would he do something silly like that when you could just store it in the registry?

Quote from: Eli_1 on May 07, 2004, 09:47 PM
I think he wants to know how to run program #1 with program #2, and change OOGA to 11 (using program #2).

I thought so too. The original question was whether it was possible, and it is. But it's mostly not a very useful thing to do, and so until he tells us more about it, and convinces me that it's really what he needs, I'm not going to go to the effort of writing an example. Reading an ini-file or the registry works better in most cases.

How would you do it? Code injection?

Quote from: Eli_1 on May 08, 2004, 06:09 PM
How would you do it? Code injection?

Just open the exe, seek to the right location, write the new value. If you're changing from a value that fits in 7 sign-extended bits to a value that requires more storage, you may be in trouble.

The easiest way of doing this yourself generally is to just put an arbitrary, unique, large value in the original source code, and then search for and replace that in the executable whenever you want to generate a new version.

Quote from: Adron on May 09, 2004, 06:38 AM

Quote from: Eli_1 on May 08, 2004, 06:09 PM
How would you do it? Code injection?

Just open the exe, seek to the right location, write the new value. If you're changing from a value that fits in 7 sign-extended bits to a value that requires more storage, you may be in trouble.

The easiest way of doing this yourself generally is to just put an arbitrary, unique, large value in the original source code, and then search for and replace that in the executable whenever you want to generate a new version.

eww, that's a terrible way to do it.  But you're right, I don't really see any other option

whats wrong with that way?

That value might happen to appear elsewhere in the program?

Quote from: TeEhEiMaN on May 04, 2004, 06:15 PM
I was wondering, if somehow, say I make just a quick program and add a number like 10, and then compile it into a exe. And then be able to make another exe, to open the exe and like change the number 10 to 11, and then save it, and have the numbers changed in the exe.

vb6
Thanks

Are you talking about patching a program?

Quote from: Adron on May 09, 2004, 06:53 PM
That value might happen to appear elsewhere in the program?

It's also slow (compared to remembering an address or something) and not terribly reliable (optimizations), and I'm sure we could find other problems.

Quote from: SNiFFeR on May 09, 2004, 08:19 PM

Quote from: TeEhEiMaN on May 04, 2004, 06:15 PM
I was wondering, if somehow, say I make just a quick program and add a number like 10, and then compile it into a exe. And then be able to make another exe, to open the exe and like change the number 10 to 11, and then save it, and have the numbers changed in the exe.

vb6
Thanks

Are you talking about patching a program?

Are we talking about patching stealing a program?