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Hacking with C++

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• Power of C++: its pointer variable
  • The power of the C/C++ language lies mainly in the fact that you can point a reference variable to any memory location and using this reference variable to read/write (any) memory location

  • There aren't many programming languages out there that let you do this so freely

  • In this brief webpage, I'll show you how to update a private variable

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• Updating private variables from any where in C++
  • You can update private variables if you so choose in C++

    (With more power, comes more responsibility. So choose wisely)

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  • Example class with 2 private variables

    class myCLass { private: int x; double y; void print() { cout << x << " " << y << endl; } };

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  • The easiest way is to define a shadow class containing the same variables but with public access modifier:

    class myShadowCLass { public: int x; double y; };

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  • Now we can update the private variables by casting using a pointer variable:

    myCLass a; a.x = 4; // Disallowed - x is private myShadowClass *p; p = (myShadowClass *) &a; // <--- Cast address to (myShadowClass *) !!! p->x = 4; // Update the private variable x

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  • Example Program: (Demo above code)                                                
    • Prog file: click here