The Settlers 7 BETA

[XRaptor]

Hi,
simple question - anyone tried to reverse/unpack new version of *.bba archives from last Settlers game? It seems that everything is now encrypted.

[Rheini]

I started but haven't done much yet, it's pretty complex.
Format seems similar to the last one: http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php/Settle ... _An_Empire

Don't know if the encryption routines changed though.

[OlaHaldor]

Any news on this one?

[Rheini]

Nope.

[ednet]

Hello guys,

At first i have to say i own the retail version. I find out some new informations. I did research to the patch process (done by the gameudate) and i think i could find out the filestructure inside the BBA files.

I hope with these informations and with the specific patcher executable you are able to find a working encryption and decryption. You dont have to analysis the ~12MB game executable and maybe it is easier to find the algorythm by analysing the 207KB patch executable.

Please see the attachment, inside you can find some bba-files and the patcher and a readme how to use the patcher!
Hope i could help!

Download attachment: S7.rar

Greetings
ednet

[Rheini]

That's pretty interesting indeed. Gonna have a look

[vizipok]

I am also very interested in the texts of The Settlers 7.
Unfortunately, last year I couldn't translate The Settlers 6: Eastern Realm.

Good luck, Rheini!

[nevermind]

Can't believe that someone buys a game with a DRM "copy protection" ;D

So here are some hints:

- Archive format is almost the same as the Settlers 6 format
- Encryption algorithms are (almost) the same
- Directory is not compressed any more
- Most of the files are compressed using zlib, use inflate() to uncompress the data after the initialization inflateInit2(&strm, 31);
-> First 16 bytes of the compressed data are encrypted using a simple xor algorithm
- e.g. MP3 files are not compressed but encrypted now
-> Same encryption algorithm that was used for the directory
-> Decrypt in blocks of 32KB
- All encryption keys are 4 x 32 bit
-> If you want to decrypt file data xor each word of the key with the corresponding filename length

Hope that helps. Good luck!

[Rheini]

Good luck, Rheini!

I gotta put this on ice. Don't have the time to spend hours on a game I probably won't play any longer than a few hours anyway.
Especially since nevermind seems to have all the knowledge necessary for writing an unpacker.

[nevermind]

knowledge: yes
time and motivation: no

I played with the demo archives, extracted some files - but that's all. As long as the game is "protected" with DRM I will not spend any more time on this game, sry.

[vizipok]

I am very disappointed. I can't solve the problem myself (unpacking text files).
I'm just a translator, not a programmer.
Could anyone help me, please?

[Rheini]

As long as the game is "protected" with DRM I will not spend any more time on this game, sry.

So wait for the crack

How is the decryption algorithm chosen/where are the keys?

[aluigi]

I have not understood what should be the step-by-step for extracting the archived files.
all the rest is done and works perfectly except this final part.

example from shr.bba:
filename: Config\Castles.xml
type: 0x11
compressed size: 6557
decompressed size: 143349

Code: Select all

7c c0 dd 3c 4e f8 2e 35 29 8a 43 0e 2e 26 b0 cb   |..<N..5).C..&..
96 7d de a9 9a ff 90 ca fb 6c 93 00 49 91 55 e9   .}.......l..I.U.
4c 4d b2 9d 4e d5 da db 5d 51 76 67 6a 5f ba 34   LM..N...]Qvgj_.4
11 93 a8 5a 96 bc b2 dc 9d cc af 5f c9 b2 d3 72   ...Z......._...r

encryption table:

Code: Select all

96 76 7f 7d 97 d2 25 e2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 42 7b 7d b5 96 76 7f 7d 00 00 00 00

if necessary I have also an mp3 example.
come on, last effort and we can remove this game from the todo list :)

[aluigi]

my doubts derive by the fact that the wiki about settlers6 doesn't really explain the method for dumping the archived files, it tells only about xor and encryption table in an inconsistent way or a way that doesn't apply to settlers7.

for example there are references to the filetype identifier used for an array and about its values 0 or 1 for compressed/encrypted files and obviously this has no sense because their job must be one of them (since one excludes the other) and in my tests it's the second the correct one:
0x02 for non-compressed mp3s, 0x11 for compressed files, so type&1 = 0 and 1.

settlers7 has 2 different tea decryptions (ok, only different constants) that use ever the same 2 fixed keys (at least in the handling of the header) and are used for the encryption ids 0x6d1a8389 and 0x7d7f7696 but trying both the decryptions on the files give no results.
indeed in the blind tests I have made here with both encryptions and a "guessed" xoring it's all invalid.

so the informations are wrong or incomplete or simply different than the demo.

now I could get settlers6, reversing it and then applying the differences to settlers7, yeah but I would prefer the "easy life" at least one time moreover because this is only a test and the end seems not much far.

the following are the info about an archived mp3 in case it helps:
filename: Spoken\MessagesTutorial\Map_10\MessageMap10Dracorian11.mp3
type: 0x02
compressed size: 0x10a53 (not compressed)
decompressed size: 0x10a53

Code: Select all

4b aa d8 75 fc 0b 8f 6b 83 2e ea 06 d3 d1 71 03   K..u...k......q.
71 e5 68 33 b9 8a a7 23 3c 7e 1a ac bb a0 02 79   q.h3...#<~.....y
4d 64 33 27 f4 25 a9 ff 74 8f ed be 93 af 85 38   Md3'.%..t......8
03 33 e0 d7 cf 05 6e 28 90 e3 5a a7 ae d3 b5 f6   .3....n(..Z.....
52 d6 79 27 7d 5c 6d e2 ac 49 2a 4b b4 30 56 9f   R.y'}\m..I*K.0V.
e7 43 9a 6b 28 ef 91 14 3d 33 ad 8c 7c 02 e8 e5   .C.k(...=3..|...
ac 32 70 ca 7d fe ce 7e d4 bf d1 87 c6 3b bd 01   .2p.}..~.....;..
...

[Rheini]

my doubts derive by the fact that the wiki about settlers6 doesn't really explain the method for dumping the archived files, it tells only about xor and encryption table in an inconsistent way or a way that doesn't apply to settlers7.

The wiki page was written by nevermind as well.