What is the procedure with timebombs?

Discussion in 'Software' started by Frunkenstein, May 30, 2024.

  1. Frunkenstein

    Frunkenstein Noisemaker

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    I haven't ever experiencing something timebomb yet, and was wondering what are some of the things you can try out to remedy it if and when a timebomb does happen.

    For example, does uninstalling and reinstalling the timebombed plug-in just reset everything?
     
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  3. dkny

    dkny Platinum Record

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    You're asking for generalisations, but basically, every developer that implements protection does it differently, so no one method is going to always work for everything. In short: It depends. Maybe the developer has written stuff in a hidden randomly named file placed somewhere on your file system - you wouldn't know to go looking for it, and thus are unlikely to remove it.
     
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  4. BlackHawk

    BlackHawk Producer

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    Use Revo Uninstaller when installing something. Revo logs exactly what is installed, where it is installed and so on. So if you uninstall again with Revo your system is after that exactly like before. You then could install the software anew. But, let's be honest, no plugin is worth that hassle. There are lots of replacements available without timebombs.
     
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  5. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    Sure there are. The individual timebombed release may not be worthwhile to try again. But that is just a single method, or a missed check, or other reason which causes the plugin to de-authorize. A new method will not always help, if the prior method installation is not fully cleaned up first.
    Example, U-He All bundle. Microtonic. etc. Even a purchase of a legit license may not even help, while the remnants of the failed installation are still on the hard disk.
     
  6. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Moderator Staff Member

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    uhe is just easy to clean. just delete the whole uhe-plugin.data folder (backup the presets ofc) and you should be good to go.

    Microtonic/sonic charge still relies on registry keys on windows (possibly setting files on mac), so you might search the registry for remaining reg keys sonic charge plugins.

    uhe still timebomb only if the binary has been modified, so far i remember - havnt seen something else. And i mean since the table was reverse engineered we are good to go for that plugins with solid releases.

    Timebombs can be:
    - audio nags, like playing noise or just fuck up the tuning, even noise bursts (Fabfilter for example)
    - blur part of the gui or turn the GUI black
    - disable preset saving completely or make it impossible to load presets.
    - etc

    audio devs can be very creative with timebombs or limitations in general.

    the purpose of a timebomb is to surprise the user in a session, in a way that it runs the current copy of the plugin unusable. So that the user gets frustrated and buys a legit version of the plugin.

    Why are timebombs so hard to find?
    - they are deep hidden in the code of plugin - you wont really find them by inspecting the plugin in a debug session
    - they can be date triggered (uhe had timebomb days for different plugins)
    - they can also be triggered by user action
    - they can also be triggered by verifying the license via an online server

    overall in the last years i think timebombs have been reduced and there are fewer releases, which actual need a fix.
     
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  7. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    on Mac the last "all bundle" were all beta versions and they had specific expiration dates. Later ones are all separate installers and regged. Cleaning up on Mac for a single app is generally easier and doesn't need something as nice as Revo Uninstaller. Microtonic has lots of time-bombed releases, but if you come up with "magic version release" you still would want to clean up first or you might have problems you wouldn't if you had cleaned up correctly.

    There is almost nothing for a common Mac user to deal with, that is anywhere near as tedious as the Windows Registry and regedit stuff. If they do, it is in Terminal. They may not do the task at hand correctly, but usually won't break anything new. People frequently go into registry edit and make stuff worse than when they started. We have applications similar to Revo, but none are as stand-out from the others. Pacifist, Suspicious Package, etc. are great, but they are not magic like Revo.
     
  8. ArticStorm

    ArticStorm Moderator Staff Member

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    beta and alpha have in the most times expiration dates, bcs they sometimes come without a proper protection or a beta/alpha serial is supplied, to make these non functional, devs add an expiration date.

    there is nothing your uninstaller can do about it.

    the only way is to bypass these dates, but this can be very hard sometimes.

    about macOS i only know that there is no registry, so settings, serials, etc have to be saved to settings files and uhe for example has a very easy structure to find the user/serial pair saved.

    Sonic Charge makes this a bit harder, since the serials are somewhat hashed or encrypted before saving. So search these settings files, they are probably in the config folder on macOS, where all configurations are stored - It is the equivalent to the registry on windows i think.
     
  9. Backtired

    Backtired Audiosexual

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    wasn't there that little program that changed the time of your system/masked the real time for the program? it used to work many years ago on some demos/less unknown plugins
     
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