IDA pro 4.3.0.740 and watermarks

I just got the DataRescue (IDA Pro Advanced V4.3.0.740 RETAIL READNFO) zenith release and it says that all the watermarks have been removed but the post at http://www.datarescue.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000461

Author
Pierre Vandevenne
Administrator
Member # 1
Topic: Leaked IDA Version and watermarks
posted 13 January 2003 02:54 PM

Says that they have not been all remove do I have any thing to worry about if I use IDA PRO 4.3.0.740. What does the watermark do, does it affect the program in any way will it phone home or what.

[tom324]

With a little search on this (and Fravia message board) you will find answer to that question. It has been debated quite a lot.

Tom

@tom324 problem with your response is that fravia is down so would be a little hard to search such a topic. So why respond with an answer like that when all you had to do is explain what you have read? Wouldn't that be the right thing to do? oh well i guess people will never learn.

[tom324]

chainie,

I am getting bored by answering questions which already have been answered on this and other MBs. Asking for help is the last resort not the first one. That is the reason for such a reply.

Now, watermarks in IDA are no protection against piracy in classical way. It means IDA can be copied and used by others without any problems. The purpose of watermarks is to 'label' each and every copy of IDA to its legitimate user. _Almost_ all IDA files have user name and other data encoded in themselves. So, when some IDA version leaks it is quite easy to determine who it that. That is all protection. No phone home or any other limitations.

IDA database (idb) is also watermarked, and when someone is using a warezed version of IDA and gives its output (idb) to public, it is easy to see whose and which version he is using.

BTW, Fravia is up again and those information can also be found at DataRescue MB if you would care to do a bit of search on your own.

Tom

[Squidge]

It seems that Zenith patched a little too far when they "removed" the watermarks in IDA 4.3.0.740. The resulting application they have warez is less stable (Crashes far more often) than a proper retail version of the same revision.

So for those interested int he warez'd versions, I'd tell them to stick to 4.17 or buy 4.30.

[tom324]

Originally posted by Squidge
The resulting application they have warez is less stable (Crashes far more often) than a proper retail version of the same revision.

I have not noticed such a behavior of the warezed IDA 4.3.0.740
Is there a reproducible bug?

Tom

[_Servil_]

Warezed Ida is crashing sometimes on exit after db is saved. Occassionally it doesn't start correctly and behaves weird (no navigation pane update, for ex... )

Maybe if we are lucky ZENiTH or someone that knows them reads this board

Please Release The Full Retail Version untouched it seems you already lost support etc... so you have nothing to loose

@tom324 yeah i understand that you are tired of the same old questions, i worked at doom9 as a mod for a year so that i understand but fravia has been down for almost a week and when you you responded to his post it wasen't up thats all i was saying he should do searches, shoot you can't learn reversing unless you search and read up on your own, anyone with half a brain cell can figure that out. I myself could care less about watermarks at this time, i think i read about it at fravia's but to me isn't an important question but to someone else it is...thats how i see it.

[tom324]

chainie, I understand what you are trying to say. Let's forget all of this and no hard fealings.

_Servil_, I use Win2000 SP2 and have no problems with 4.30. What is your environment? 4.30 has known memory leaks as mentioned on datarescue MB.

XCURSiON, not likely that anyone will release unwatermarked version, even with support lost. People do not like their name all over the Internet. That's the all idea of watermark based protection.

Tom

May be offtopic...
If somebody realized zenith's release has Edit\Patch program... menu hidden by default. Solution is to edit file idagui.cfg

DISPLAY_PATCH_SUBMENU = YES

Perhaps it'll be useful for newbies. If not, forget...

By me zenith's IDA works without any error, except access violation when i'm scrolling the code with mouse-wheel. But who cares may be it's mouse's own bug

[_Servil_]

mean access violation in the wheel ?...

The tooltips on xrefs caused crash [WinXP].

tom324:
it's possibly OS-related eceptionn since it'n not reliable just on XP but on Win98 runs like a charm and faster...got not too much time to confirm this though.

IMO releasing this version wasn't much importtant 'coz not much changed since 4.17, beside it didn;t improve the analysis and even no Delphi7 support, though about a year out. anybody knows is there something worth using this? I'm ithinking to go back to old ver

[tom324]

Originally posted by _Servil_
it's possibly OS-related eceptionn since it'n not reliable just on XP but on Win98 runs like a charm and faster...got not too much time to confirm this though.

It looks like OS related. I have just tried tooltips on xrefs, and it works without any problem.

Tom