Friday, 29 July 2011

Hacking

Hello My friends,
My self Vickyvikramaditya.I'm basically form india,and i want to tell you some interesting knowledge about Hacking.


So first of all. What is Hacking?
Hacking is the practice of modifying the features of a system, in order to accomplish a goal outside of the creator's original purpose. The person who is consistently engaging in hacking activities, and has accepted hacking as a lifestyle and philosophy of their choice, is called a hacker

Computer hacking is the practice of modifying computer hardware and software to accomplish a goal outside of the creator’s original purpose. People who engage in computer hacking activities are often called hackers. Since the word “hack” has long been used to describe someone who is incompetent at his/her profession, some hackers claim this term is offensive and fails to give appropriate recognition to their skills.
Computer hacking is most common among teenagers and young adults, although there are many older hackers as well. Many hackers are true technology buffs who enjoy learning more about how computers work and consider computer hacking an “art” form. They often enjoy programming and have expert-level skills in one particular program. For these individuals, computer hacking is a real life application of their problem-solving skills. It’s a chance to demonstrate their abilities, not an opportunity to harm others.
Since a large number of hackers are self-taught prodigies, some corporations actually employ computer hackers as part of their technical support staff. These individuals use their skills to find flaws in the company’s security system so that they can be repaired quickly. In many cases, this type of computer hacking helps prevent identity theft and other serious computer-related crimes.

There are so many types of hacking.But the mainly are of two types. They are
  • computer hacking
  • ethical hacking
The comuter hacking and ethical hacking looks like the same. But they have different way and can be expressed in a different manner.
A computer hacking can be done without lan connection.It may be work online or offline. But ethical hacking you must connect your pc with internet. Or a radio sattelite devies 
(that was a different proceess) if you can do so....
In Ethical hacking the terms used are
  • sniffing
  • spoofing
  • cracking
  • D.O.S.(daniel of service attack)
  • password breaking(cracking)
  • spaming
  • tracking
But computer hacking relates the following tasks
  • ROM hacking
  • BIOS hacking
  • Password cracking(offline)
  • Cracking(offline)
Today I'm going to tell you something about ROM hacking

ROM hacking
ROM hacking is the process of modifying a video game ROM image to alter the game's graphics, dialogue, levels, gameplay, or other elements. This is usually done by technically inclined video game fans to breathe new life into a cherished old game, as a creative outlet, or to make essentially new unofficial games using the old game's engine.
ROM hacking is generally accomplished through use of a hex editor (a program for editing non-textual data) and various specialized tools such as tile editors, and game-specific tools which are generally used for editing levels, items, and the like, although more advanced tools such as assemblers and debuggers are occasionally used. Once ready, they are usually distributed on the Internet for others to play on an emulator.
Fan translation (known as "translation hacking" within the ROM hacking community) is a type of ROM hacking; there are also anti-censorship hacks that exist to restore a game to its original state, which is often seen with older games that were imported, as publishers' content policies for video games (most notably, Nintendo's) were much stricter in the United States than Japan or Europe. Although much of the methodology applies to both types of hacking, this article focuses on "creative hacking" such as editing game levels.

Many ROM hackers form or join groups for various reasons, such as for web space to host hacks and/or screenshots, for the support of or collaboration with other members of the group, for privileged status on the group's message board (if it has one), for the prestige associated with the group, or just for the comradeship. Many hackers, however, choose to go solo. Not all group members are necessarily ROM hackers themselves; some have "retired" from the craft, others offer services such as website and/or message board administration, and some simply offer guidance to aspiring ROM hackers.
Most hacking groups offer web space for hosting hacks and screenshots (sometimes only hosting hacks by the group's members, sometimes hosting almost any hack), a message board, and often have an IRC channel.

Methodology
Having been created by many different programmers or programming teams, ROM data can be very diverse.
Hex editing
A hex editors is one of the most fundamental tools in any ROM hacker's repertoire. Hex editors are usually used for editing text, and for editing other data for which the structure is known (for example, item properties), and Assembly hacking.
Editing text is one of the most basic forms of hacking. Many games do not store their text inASCII form, and because of this, some specialized hex editors have been developed, which can be told what byte values correspond to what letter(s) of the alphabet, to facilitate text editing; a file that defines these byte=letter relationships is called a "table" file. Other games use simple text compression techniques (such as byte pair encoding also called dual-tile encoding or DTE, in which certain combinations of two or more letters are encoded as one byte) which a suitably equipped hex editor can facilitate editing.
A hex editor is the tool of choice for editing things such as character/item properties, if the structure and location of this data is known and there is no game-specific editor for the game that can edit this information. Some intrepid hackers also perform level editing with a hex editor, but this is extremely difficult (except on games whose level storage format closely resembles how it is presented in a hex editor).

Graphics editing
 
Another basic hacking skill is graphics hacking, which is changing the appearance of the game's environs, characters, fonts, or other such things. The format of graphics data varies from console to console, but most of the early ones (NES, Super NES, Game Boy, etc.) store graphics in tiles which are 8x8-pixels units of data, which are arranged on-screen to produce the desired result. Editing these tiles is also possible with a hex editor, but is generally accomplished with a tile editor (such as Tile Layer or Tile molestor), which can display the ROM data in a graphical way, as well as editing tiles.
Graphics hacks can range from simple edits (such as giving Mario an afro) to "porting" characters from one game to another, to full-blown thematic changes (usually with accompanying palette changes; see below).
More sophisticated graphics hacking involves changing more than just tiles and colors, but also the way in which the tiles are arranged, or tile groups generated, giving more flexibility and control over the final appearance. This is accomplished through hex editing or a specialized tool (either for the specific game or a specific system). A good example of a graphics hack is the uncompleted Pokémon Torzach, a hack which attempted to add a whole new generation of Pokémon and tiles to the game. The hack has since been discontinued, but it still serves as a good example on what can be achieved with the tools available.


Palette editing
Another common form of hacking is palette hacking, where color values are modified to change the colors a player sees in the game (this often goes hand-in-hand with graphics hacking); Palette values are commonly stored in Hex. This is fairly easy for NES games, the graphics of which use a pre-defined set of colors among which a game selects; palette hacking in this case entails changing which of those colors are selected. The matter is slightly more complicated with Super NES games and games for other systems, which store absolute RGB color values. Palette editors are usually simple and often are with Level editors, or Game specific graphics editors.

Level editing
One of the most popular forms of ROM hacking, level editing entails modifying or redesigning a game's levels or maps. This is almost exclusively done with an editor specially tailored for a particular game (called a level editor). Level edits can be done to make the game more challenging, to alter the flow of the game's plot, or just to give something new to an old game. Combined with extensive graphics hacking, the game can take on a very different look and feel

Data editing
A core component of many hacks (especially of RPGs) is editing data such as character, item, and enemy properties. This is usually done either "by hand" (with a hex editor) if the location and structure of the data is known, or with a game-specific editor that has this functionality. Through this, a hacker can alter how weapons work, how strong enemies are or how they act, etc. This can be done to make the game easier or harder, or to create new scenarios for the player to face.

Assembly hacking
The most powerful, and arguably the most difficult, hacking technique is editing the game's actual code, a process called ASM hacking ("ASM" means "assembly", referring to the type of programming language used for early console games). There is no set pattern for ASM hacking, as the code varies widely from game to game, but most skilled ASM hackers either use an emulator equipped with a built-in debugger or tracer, or run the ROM through a disassembler, then analyze the code and modify it using a hex editor or assembler according to their needs. While quite challenging compared to the relatively simple methods listed above, anything is possible with ASM hacking (of course, within the limits of the hardware/software of the gaming platform), ranging from altering enemy AI to changing how graphics are generated. (Of course, the possibilities are still limited by the hacker's ability to comprehend and modify the existing code.)
If the developers used a typed language, the hacker may be able to compile their own code for the game in the same language if they have access to a proper compiler. One such example would be using C to hack Nintendo 64 games, since MIPS-GCC can compile code for the Nintendo 64

Music hacking
Music hacks are relatively rare, due to the wide variety of ways games store music data (hence the difficulty in locating and modifying this data) and the difficulties in composing new music (or porting music from another game). As music cracking is very uncommon, many hacks do not have any ported/composed music added in. The program SapTapper can be used to hack Gameboy Advance music data, however, as many Gameboy Advance games use the M4A Engine (also called "Sappy Driver") for music.
The most common form of hacking music is porting music from one ROM file to another, usually both made by the same company. Porting music from two files will almost always pose some type of problem, as the format is almost always different. A good example of music hacking would be the uncompleted hacked game Pokémon: The Legendary Ashes.

ROM expansion
Generally speaking, a ROM hacker cannot add content to a game, but merely change existing content. This limit can be overcome through ROM expansion, whereby the total size of the ROM image is increased, making room for more content and a larger game. The difficulty in doing this varies depending on the system for which the game was made. For example, expanding an NES ROM may be difficult or even impossible due to the mapper  used by the game. For example, if a mapper allows 16 ROM banks and all of them are used, expanding the ROM further is impossible without somehow converting the game to another mapper, which could be easy or extremely difficult. On the other hand, expanding a Super NES game is (relatively) straightforward. To utilize the added space, parts of the game code have to be modified or re-written (see Assembly hacking above) so the game knows where to look. The Game Boy Advance is generally considered the easiest to expand.

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