Re: Non-6502 ROM used for software key?

From: Anders Carlsson <anders.carlsson_at_sfks.se>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2018 14:02:19 +0200
Message-ID: <3fe882cc-dadf-6642-ce26-5c1527ff9f85@sfks.se>
Michał Pleban wrote:

> I would suggest downloading a disassembler which can handle multiple
> architectures (such as IDA) and throw the binary at it to see if one of
> the architectures produces a meaningful disassembly.

Assuming it really is X86 code, I tried one of many online disassemblers 
yesterday. While I don't understand much of X86 assembly code, it 
generated a rather obscure listing with what seems to be lots of far 
references and strange constants. It might very well be the case, or a 
false positive that the AA 55 (or rather 55 AA) happens to be a BIOS 
signature.

Perhaps the application in Ethan's 8032 actually uses a good part of the 
ROM for data constants rather than just being a software key/dongle, so 
those values would be hand picked?

If it is code from another source, I would rather think in terms of 8080 
or Z80 than 8086, given that the X86 didn't really become popular until 
the 8032 was on the end of its commercial lifetime.

While I haven't tried it, I found a tool called DASMx (not to be 
confused with the cross-assembler called DASM). This one supposedly will 
take a binary file and tries to disassemble it for a wide range of CPUs 
of the time. I can name a few missing from the list, but the majority of 
the ones that are relevant seem to be there.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/pclare/DASMx/

Best regards

Anders Carlsson
Received on 2018-03-27 15:00:03

Archive generated by hypermail 2.2.0.