Help/Support How do I make a working tweak for a game?

Joka · September 7, 2016

Again, its vary. You have to find if it can be hacked with Flex 2, iGG/Gameplayer then IDA

Cheers.

AnotherLurker · September 7, 2016

It can differ depending upon the game, its creator, and the company behind it (if not free-lance)
Most games aren't made in a language called "Objective-C" (or its successor, language "Swift"), they're made with technologies like OpenGL, and Metal (Apple's own OpenGL alternative). Coding with OpenGL in Objective-C (or Swift for that matter) doesn't make much sense, so game developers (and their companies if they are representing one) make games in another language called C++. Unlike Objective-C (and Swift as well), Code made in C++ isn't dumped in Flex, and is harder (than Flex) to hook.

Some developers, in order to provide more security (and/or speed, can't confirm this), do something called symbol-stripping, where the names of the functions in code (or methods, if you're used to that terminology), are taken away, leaving behind a naked binary. Regardless of whether symbol-stripping is in effect, applications made in C++ are easier to hack (easier than Flex, not actually easier than Objective-C/Swift applications) with a program called "The Interactive Disassembler" (or IDA for short). This program is used by reverse engineers to examine compiled code. Hackers also use IDA (or "The Interactive Disassembler") to inspect the game's compiled code (placed in a file called a binary/executable). With this information, they are able to understand how the code works, and more importantly, how to place effective hooks for the features they desire.

In the sections, "Cydia Substrate Cheats" and "IDA Binary Cheats", you can find examples of cheats that have been made with IDA. While "Cydia Substrate Cheats" is a combination of both Flex cheats (made into Cydia Substrate) and IDA Cheats, much of the "well known" cheats, and cheats for more popular games are made using a combination of Cydia Substrate and IDA. The "IDA Cheats" section is a purely IDA only cheats section, which is why you don't see a delian-file installation, as all that is posted for downloading is the binary/executable that has some of its code changed

Now making IDA Cheats into Cydia Substrate allows people who makes these cheats from within IDA to have preferences, custom alerts, and everything else non-IDA cheats have had for some time. In truth, Cydia Substrate is a library made by Jay Freeman (Saurik, creator of Cydia) to give developers an easy, safe method of hooking into the application. Now, another piece of code, called writeData, allows you to override instructions (compiled code in a way) to be overrode at a certain address (called "offsets"; you can get them in IDA when first finding these instructors), a combination of both Cydia Substrate and writeData give hackers who use IDA an easy and effective way to better provide their cheats with options, alerts, etc

Making Cydia Substrate "Tweaks" (a name to refer to code that is used by Cydia Substrate to Tweak or hook other code) is actually a lot easier than finding all the finding right materials needed to assemble the hook. "Tweaks" can refer to both method-hooked (hooking of stuff found in Flex to put it simply) or offset/symbol-hooked (hooking of functions or offsets found in IDA), as it doesn't really matter what the "Tweak" is doing, as long it is overriding some other code

Patricktph · September 7, 2016

It can differ depending upon the game, its creator, and the company behind it (if not free-lance)

Most games aren't made in a language called "Objective-C" (or its successor, language "Swift"), they're made with technologies like OpenGL, and Metal (Apple's own OpenGL alternative). Coding with OpenGL in Objective-C (or Swift for that matter) doesn't make much sense, so game developers (and their companies if they are representing one) make games in another language called C++. Unlike Objective-C (and Swift as well), Code made in C++ isn't dumped in Flex, and is harder (than Flex) to hook.

Some developers, in order to provide more security (and/or speed, can't confirm this), do something called symbol-stripping, where the names of the functions in code (or methods, if you're used to that terminology), are taken away, leaving behind a naked binary. Regardless of whether symbol-stripping is in effect, applications made in C++ are easier to hack (easier than Flex, not actually easier than Objective-C/Swift applications) with a program called "The Interactive Disassembler" (or IDA for short). This program is used by reverse engineers to examine compiled code. Hackers also use IDA (or "The Interactive Disassembler") to inspect the game's compiled code (placed in a file called a binary/executable). With this information, they are able to understand how the code works, and more importantly, how to place effective hooks for the features they desire.

In the sections, "Cydia Substrate Cheats" and "IDA Binary Cheats", you can find examples of cheats that have been made with IDA. While "Cydia Substrate Cheats" is a combination of both Flex cheats (made into Cydia Substrate) and IDA Cheats, much of the "well known" cheats, and cheats for more popular games are made using a combination of Cydia Substrate and IDA. The "IDA Cheats" section is a purely IDA only cheats section, which is why you don't see a delian-file installation, as all that is posted for downloading is the binary/executable that has some of its code changed

Now making IDA Cheats into Cydia Substrate allows people who makes these cheats from within IDA to have preferences, custom alerts, and everything else non-IDA cheats have had for some time. In truth, Cydia Substrate is a library made by Jay Freeman (Saurik, creator of Cydia) to give developers an easy, safe method of hooking into the application. Now, another piece of code, called writeData, allows you to override instructions (compiled code in a way) to be overrode at a certain address (called "offsets"; you can get them in IDA when first finding these instructors), a combination of both Cydia Substrate and writeData give hackers who use IDA an easy and effective way to better provide their cheats with options, alerts, etc

Making Cydia Substrate "Tweaks" (a name to refer to code that is used by Cydia Substrate to Tweak or hook other code) is actually a lot easier than finding all the finding right materials needed to assemble the hook. "Tweaks" can refer to both method-hooked (hooking of stuff found in Flex to put it simply) or offset/symbol-hooked (hooking of functions or offsets found in IDA), as it doesn't really matter what the "Tweak" is doing, as long it is overriding some other code