[IDA tutorial] How to mod x86 lib .so file

Hello dear community,

Today, i will teach you how to mod x86 libs. x86 is not that hard to understand because the instruction are almost the same as ARM. In this tutorial, i mod the game called The Sandbox 2.

You don't really need to mod x86 at all since I never heard any problem with ARM translating to x86, and it's too hard to change instruction without code caving. Just wanna make tutorial lol

Now let's start modding.

In this tutorial, I'll show you how to mod The Sandbox Evolution very easy in x86.

First of all, you need IDA PRO and Hex Workshop installed on your computer. If you already have them installed, go to next step

Open the APK file with WinRar and extract the lib folder (In case you want to mod both x86 and ARM)

Open the x86 .so file in IDA. You will see the dialog box similar to the following:

In x86, you don't need to change anything. MetaPC is fine. Click OK to disassemble the lib file, and let it fully load. After that, press CTRL + F,  search "isElementUnlocked" and double click on the function to open it

Remember the offset (9869E0) of first instruction. we need to use it later.

Note: The offset will change each update.

 

Open Hex Workshop or other hex editing program, and search the offset. I'm using Hex Workshop

 

Here is the offset of isElementUnlocked

The function isElementUnlocked is a boolean function, which means it can return true or false. If you want  unlock everything, replace it with b8 01 00 00 00 c3, which will return true.

True is:

b8 01 00 00 00 (mov eax, 1)

 false is:

b8 00 00 00 00 (mov eax, 0)

And return is:

c3 (retn)

 

When you open the modded .so file in IDA, your modded instruction will look like:

Isn't that easy?

If you want to hack mana like 9999999, search getManaBalance and giveMana, and replace it with any values you want

b8 7f 96 98 00 (mov eax, 9999999)

c3 (ret)

Open the APK with WinRAR and replace the modded .so file. Re-sign the APK, install it and run the game.

Credits:

AndnixSH#

Tutorial updated (May 2018)