Daedalus FF12 FOV Changer Unblock Request

[DaedalusMachina007]

I am Daedalus of the Daedalus Mega ModPak for FF12 Zodiac Age:
https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12/mods/37?tab=files

 

I created a utility for changing the FOV within the game using the built-in executable creation functionality of the Cheat Engine software.

Unfortunately, many antiviruses are false-flagging it as a Trojan/BackDoor/whatever crap they want to make up.

 

I'd like to request a manual whitelisting of that specific file so that others can download it from the Nexus file hosting services.

The file's name is: Daedalus FF12 TZA FOV Changer

 

I am the author of the file and worked quite a bit on making it run well and look decent. It has zero malicious functionality and it exclusively works ONLY with Zodiac Age; it won't have any effect on any other games or processes. Because of how the EXE creation process works, Cheat Engine actually XOR-encrypts the file with some simple obfustication to prevent others from easily editing it and taking credit for creating it.

 

Thank you for your time and attention.

[BigBizkit]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the report. We are looking into it and will get back to you as soon as possible.

[DaedalusMachina007]

Hello BigBizkit; please grab the file from my MEGA mirror. I've removed it from the Nexus upload since it flagged my entire Daedalus Mega ModPak as potentially malicious because of the recent FOV changer being falsely-flagged with the cheat engine file.

 

Many people who rely on me to remain 'clean' were concerned so I have removed it from the Nexus end for now. I'll re-upload it once I receive confirmation that it will be whitelisted. Since Cheat Engine itself is 100% open source, the EXE creation function it uses merely converts a Cheat Engine Table and adds in some basic GUI elements. The entire thing can also be saved as a fully-readable text file but that text file would require Cheat Engine. I created the standalone EXE version because it doesn't require that the end-user has Cheat Engine since using Cheat Engine itself saves some bits in the Windows Registry. Using my utility doesn't save anything in the Windows registry (to the best of my knowledge).

 

If the staff have any questions about the utility, I believe I can ask a friend to decompile it if you want the raw bits to examine. It is a Cheat Engine table that modifies the FOV address for FF12 Zodiac Age. My utility uses some pre-configured hotkeys to modify the value while the game is running. Everything is packed and XOR-encrypted automatically by the Cheat Engine EXE creation utility to mitigate 'leechers' that take work done by others and modify credits to claim credit for the work of others. Another user on the Cheat Engine forums has a private utility that can decompile these Cheat Engine EXE files and obtain the component files in various pieces.

 

Thank you for the response. It is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you need anything from me.

EDIT:
Clarified the Windows registry thing. I believe one single preferences-based registry key is created by Cheat Engine, however I have no control over that. Also edited to remove the bits about decompiling since the person made that offer over 3 years ago.

Edited January 26, 2019 by DaedalusMachina007

[BigBizkit]

HI again,

 

We looked into it and found that it should be fine and that the positives are down to it being based on cheat engine.

 

Feel free to let me know here or via PM when you have reuploaded the FOV changer and we will whitelist it - provided it is the same file with the same results.

[DaedalusMachina007]

HI again,

 

We looked into it and found that it should be fine and that the positives are down to it being based on cheat engine.

 

Feel free to let me know here or via PM when you have reuploaded the FOV changer and we will whitelist it - provided it is the same file with the same results.

 

I haven't been getting notifications of your replies in this thread. Apologies for the late response.

I have reuploaded the file that is the exact file from my MEGA mirror and from the previous (removed) upload that prompted this thread.

I greatly appreciate the whitelisting. Thanks!

I know it may be a bit much to ask but for the sake of other modders, maybe Nexus can make an official statement about Cheat Engine Tables and Cheat Engine-based EXE files?

I feel it would be useful for others who may want to make similar utilities using Cheat Engine.

 

I've gone ahead and submitted it to two well-known online malware analysis websites and linked to the reports below.

 

The Jotti VirusScanner tends to be a bit more neutral than VirusTotal and utilizes Linux-based scanner utilities to do their scans

My favorite online scanner is Hybrid Analysis because it has a great deal of wonderful features to analyze programs in an online VM environment; fully scanning for things like network access or other potentially-malicious behavior. I read through that report myself and I can see why most AV vendors mark these files as suspicious. That said though, I may ask the CE authors to consider creating a version that doesn't use certain features to minimize the potential mis-labeling of CE EXE files as malware.

 

If the admins/mods here want me to make a simple Cheat Engine Table file that my EXE was based off of then I can do that as well. Feel free to let me know.

My other mods were mostly smaller files because I just like to tweak things for a game that gets so little love.

 

I'm going to contact one of the main Cheat Engine devs about 'decompiling' my utility into source code so the Nexus admins can have that on hand for those who may wonder about the whitelisting. I'll send you a PM when I get those source files. I used the built-in EXE creation functionality of Cheat Engine so I'm not sure how to decompile it myself.

Yeah they weren't much help. The initial person who was offering it was doing so over 3 years ago and I neglected to check the date. Whoops.

 

I'm likely going to also just upload the plain-text Cheat Engine Table file for those who don't want/need the self-contained EXE file functionality. It won't have hotkey functionality if run in Cheat Engine so they'll have to alt-tab back and forth while playing the game. The primary reason I created an EXE is so that hotkeys can be used while playing the game to dynamically update the FOV in-game.

 

EDIT: Updated URL for Hybrid Analysis report. When I have another day off from work I'll look into uploading the actual Cheat Engine table.

Edited January 27, 2019 by DaedalusMachina007