search Wikipedia for hashes / encryption it will give you some very good information to start with
Thanks! I was able to get a lot of proper terminology from that page, and now I'm exploring some options. My deadend is knowing which hash function is used by Arma. I'm googling around right now, and we'll see if I can figure it out on my own.
UPDATE: I found a Hash Calculator for twelve common hash functions, and I can't find any way to get 1) key, 2) Registry Hash, and 3) Userid to correspond with each other, no matter the combination. I have also been searching for information on Arma's hashing exactly, but I can't find any information online about it. I'm going to peruse some of the Arma folder files for more info, but I'm a little pessimistic about what those results are going to be.
UPDATE2: Any hash function information is likely held in one of the EXEs, which is a little above my ability level. I'm going to see if there are any EXE deconstruction programs out there, but I think most EXEs are encrypted to prevent people from doing this easily. At this point, I'm nearing the end of what I'm able to do and I'll take any hints public or private that people want to give... thanks for your tips.
UPDATE3: Looks like Update2 is not possible, or if it is I am flabbergasted to figure out how. Several sites have said that it is not possible to decompile an EXE to edit or get at the source code. And any hashes I receive from my hash calculator are 32 digits at the minimum (with the exception of Adler32 and CRC32), but my registry hash is only 30 digits long. This is like one of those really, really hard puzzles that feel like they are impossible to solve.