This commit introduces a comprehensive document outlining the various executable-patching attempts aimed at revealing the hidden retail usecode debugger within the CRUSADER.EXE file. The document serves multiple purposes, including preserving negative evidence, recording patch shapes and their rationales, and ensuring that runtime outcomes are linked to specific patch generations.
Key sections include:
- Ground rules for patching and validation processes.
- A table of stable facts regarding the debugger's structure and behavior.
- A detailed attempt log documenting each patch's shape, mechanical and runtime results, and verdicts.
- Root-cause findings from failed paths, providing insights into the challenges faced during the patching process.
- Current live candidates for further testing and exploration.
This documentation is intended to streamline future patching efforts and improve the understanding of the underlying mechanics of the debugger.
- Implemented a Python script to extract data from the EUSECODE.FLX file format.
- Defined data structures for candidate entries and extracted chunks using dataclasses.
- Added functions to read and parse the FLX table, extract candidate data, and generate human-readable output files.
- Included functionality for analyzing extracted data, including generating summaries, descriptors, and event family reports.
- Implemented utilities for calculating printable ratios, zero ratios, and identifying text-like data.
- Added support for writing various output formats, including JSON, TSV, and Markdown.
- Added new commands to the CLI for dumping regions, renaming functions by address, and setting various types of comments.
- Implemented JSON output formatting for CLI commands.
- Introduced functions for decompiling and disassembling functions, as well as retrieving cross-references.
- Enhanced common utilities with functions for reading memory regions, iterating Java items, and managing function metadata.
- Added suppress_output context manager to hide process output during Ghidra startup.
- Updated existing functions to improve error handling and output formatting.
- Introduced `seg043_boundary_repair.json` to manage function boundaries in segment 043.
- Created `read_file.py` for reading and printing file content size.
- Added `resolve_bb4f.py` to resolve specific function call targets.
- Implemented `resolve_top_targets.py` to find resolved NE targets for top-called wrapper functions.
- Added `script_contents.txt` to summarize NE relocation far calls.
- Updated `tier4_ghidra.txt`, `tier4_ghidra_check.txt`, `tier4_output.txt`, and `tier4_result.txt` with function call statistics.
- Created `tier5_errors.txt` for error logging and `tier5_output.txt` for additional function call statistics.
- Established `tools` directory with helper scripts for the Ghidra project, including CLI and common functionalities.
- Implemented command-line interface in `cli.py` for various project operations.
- Added `common.py` for shared functions and configurations across tools.
- Introduced `validate_fixups.py` to validate NE relocation fixups against known addresses.
