They didn't ask him to crack Photoshop or AutoCAD or anything... they're freaking crackmes. It seems like quite a sensible way to approach such an interview since it takes significant time, can be done overnight on their own workstation and isn't a huge requirement like "write us a game entirely in assembly".
There is nothing immoral about cracking a crackme file, which is the very reason why the file was created.
They didn't ask him to crack Photoshop or AutoCAD or anything... they're freaking crackmes. It seems like quite a sensible way to approach such an interview since it takes significant time, can be done overnight on their own workstation and isn't a huge requirement like "write us a game entirely in assembly".
There is nothing immoral about cracking a crackme file, which is the very reason why the file was created.