charles-crack

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Open-source Charles Proxy license keygen, implemented from scratch with the RC5 block cipher. Compatible with every historical Charles 3.x / 4.x / 5.x release.

This repo ships a small, dependency-free Java codebase plus build scripts that produce:

• A cross-platform runnable JAR — works anywhere a JRE 11+ is installed.
• Native desktop bundles / installers via jpackage:
  • macOS → .dmg installer + zipped .app bundle
  • Windows → .exe launcher + .msi installer + self-contained zip
  • Linux → self-contained .tar.gz of the app-image

All artifacts land in release/ with a stable, per-platform naming convention (see below).

⚠️ For educational and research purposes only. Please purchase a legitimate Charles license at https://www.charlesproxy.com/latest-release/download.do if you use it for work.

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Project layout

charles-crack/
├── assets/
│   ├── logo.svg             # Vector logo (source of truth)
│   ├── logo.png             # 512×512 raster (Linux icon)
│   ├── logo.icns            # macOS icon bundle
│   ├── logo.ico             # Windows multi-resolution icon
│   └── logo-{16..1024}.png  # PNG export sizes
├── src/
│   ├── Main.java            # Cross-platform entry point: GUI + CLI + --help
│   ├── CharlesKeygen.java   # Key derivation logic (license name → license key)
│   └── RC5.java             # Pure-Java RC5-32/12/16 implementation
├── build.sh                 # Build script for macOS / Linux (bash)
├── build.bat                # Build script for Windows (cmd)
├── build/                   # Intermediate output (classes, MANIFEST, fat JAR)
├── dist/                    # Raw jpackage output, per OS (.app, .dmg, .exe, ...)
└── release/                 # Final, renamed, ready-to-ship artifacts

Release artifacts & naming

All final binaries go into release/. The naming convention is:

CharlesKeygen-<version>[-<os>-<arch>][-<variant>].<ext>

Platform	File
Universal	CharlesKeygen-1.0.0.jar
macOS (Apple Silicon)	CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-macos-arm64.dmg CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-macos-arm64-app.zip
macOS (Intel)	CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-macos-x64.dmg CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-macos-x64-app.zip
Windows x64	CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-windows-x64.exe CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-windows-x64.zip CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-windows-x64.msi
Linux x64	CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-linux-x64.tar.gz
Linux arm64	CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-linux-arm64.tar.gz

jpackage can only build native installers for the OS it runs on — run build.sh / build.bat on each target OS (or wire it up in CI) for full coverage. The .jar is produced on every run and is always cross-platform.

Requirements

• JDK 17 or newer is recommended (required for jpackage native bundling).
  • JDK 11+ is sufficient if you only want the runnable JAR.
• Platform-specific bundling tools used by jpackage:
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)
  • Windows: WiX Toolset 3.x on PATH (for .msi)
  • Linux: fakeroot + dpkg (for .deb) or rpmbuild (for .rpm)

Verify your toolchain:

java  -version
javac -version
jpackage --version

Build

macOS / Linux

./build.sh

Windows

build.bat

Both scripts perform the same pipeline:

1. Compile src/*.java → build/classes/
2. Package a runnable JAR → build/charles-keygen.jar (manifest sets Main-Class: Main)
3. Invoke jpackage with the platform icon from assets/ to produce native artifacts under dist/<os>/
4. Copy / rename everything into release/ with the naming convention above

Example output on Apple Silicon macOS:

release/
├── CharlesKeygen-1.0.0.jar
├── CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-macos-arm64.dmg
└── CharlesKeygen-1.0.0-macos-arm64-app.zip

Usage

1. GUI (double-click / launch app)

Install from the native bundle for your OS (.dmg / .msi / .tar.gz) or run the JAR directly:

java -jar release/CharlesKeygen-1.0.0.jar

A small Swing window opens. Enter any license name, press Generate, and the key is filled in and ready to copy.

2. Command line

# Shortcut: single positional arg
java -jar release/CharlesKeygen-1.0.0.jar "Your Name"

# Explicit CLI flag
java -jar release/CharlesKeygen-1.0.0.jar --cli "Your Name"

# Help
java -jar release/CharlesKeygen-1.0.0.jar --help

Sample output:

Charles Proxy - License Key Generator [ALL VERSIONS]
* GENERATED LICENSE:
  Name: Your Name
  Key:  44E7A0EAFB50CCD696

Applying the license to Charles

1. Open Charles → Help → Register Charles…
2. Paste the Name and Key exactly as generated.
3. Restart Charles.

If Charles refuses to launch on newer macOS versions due to license verification, also add the official fake-license patch (see the Charles docs) — this keygen generates keys that pass the local RC5 check, but network-based verification is out of scope.

How it works (brief)

Charles encodes the license key as:

Key = RC5-encrypt( f(name) , staticKey ) formatted as hex

where:

• f(name) derives a 64-bit block from the license name using a small custom mix.
• staticKey is the well-known 128-bit RC5 key embedded in every Charles build since 3.x.

RC5.java implements RC5-32/12/16 (32-bit words, 12 rounds, 16-byte key), and CharlesKeygen.java wires it together. See the source for the exact algorithm.

Regenerating the logo / icons

The logo source lives in assets/logo.svg. If you edit it, regenerate the platform icons with:

cd assets
for s in 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024; do
  rsvg-convert -w $s -h $s logo.svg -o logo-${s}.png
done

# macOS .icns
mkdir -p logo.iconset
cp logo-16.png   logo.iconset/icon_16x16.png
cp logo-32.png   logo.iconset/icon_16x16@2x.png
cp logo-32.png   logo.iconset/icon_32x32.png
cp logo-64.png   logo.iconset/icon_32x32@2x.png
cp logo-128.png  logo.iconset/icon_128x128.png
cp logo-256.png  logo.iconset/icon_128x128@2x.png
cp logo-256.png  logo.iconset/icon_256x256.png
cp logo-512.png  logo.iconset/icon_256x256@2x.png
cp logo-512.png  logo.iconset/icon_512x512.png
cp logo-1024.png logo.iconset/icon_512x512@2x.png
iconutil -c icns logo.iconset -o logo.icns
rm -rf logo.iconset

# Windows .ico (ImageMagick)
magick logo-16.png logo-32.png logo-64.png logo-128.png logo-256.png logo.ico

# Linux PNG
cp logo-512.png logo.png

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
jpackage: command not found	Install JDK 17+ and make sure $JAVA_HOME/bin is on PATH.
jpackage fails on Windows with WiX error	Install WiX 3.x and add its bin/ to PATH, or build only the app-image type.
jpackage fails on Linux with "Cannot find dpkg"	Install fakeroot dpkg (Debian/Ubuntu) or rpm-build (Fedora/RHEL).
GUI doesn't open on Linux over SSH	You need an X11/Wayland display; use the CLI mode instead.
UnsupportedClassVersionError when running the JAR	Upgrade your JRE to 11+ (17+ recommended).

License

Source code is released under the MIT License — see LICENSE.

"Charles" and "Charles Proxy" are trademarks of XK72 Ltd. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by XK72 Ltd.