software security

[Anonymous]

Hi all. I wish to ask about software locking techneques. I am about to release a new software package and I would like to ask people about their experiences and preferances with software security locking.

There are basically 4 ways to secure software, using a hardware lock, using a software lock that locks to the user's harddrive number and a software lock that locks to AutoCAD's serial number.

The fourth idea I have is to create a special registration file that is encrypted and contains the user's info, serial number, etc. As long as that file is found in the system it will run the software.

Hardware locks in my experience are only useful for very expensive software and are often faulty.

Software that locks to a harddrive is easier or the user and no hardware needs to be shipped, but if the user has a problem with the computer or switches computers they have to ask for a new code.

Softare that locks to AutoCAD's serial numbers makes it easy on the end user but it leaves the software vonerable to being installed on more than one computer when they purchased just one. It could be also potentially use the users's id as part of the locking, so even if the user has installed the same AutoCAD on a network the serial number is only part of the unlock key.

The last idea I have seams useful it allows the user to not worry about what happens to their computer as long as they have a backup of the file. The user would also be informed that the registration file has their personal info and should not distribute it, as it would point back to the purchaser.

What are your thoughts? Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks Chad

[Anonymous]

IMHO

Using the AutoCAD serial number is a good way to
lock software. Few people are willing to let their serial number out of
their control.

Another way is to use customers a credit card
number as a key. No one wants to share that number with others.

As far as multiple usage by the same person goes,
restrictions using hardware just cause problems and will not likely
generate more revenue.

Jim

[Anonymous]

Also, and this has nothing to do with Autodesk or
AutoCAD just from my *past personal experience*, in fact I don't even know how
the protection system works in AutoCAD so don't assume anything from
this:

It is very easy to find the protection check using
an assembly debugger and then bypassing this call so be a bit more clever
about how you do your protection check.

You might want to do something like
this...

Split your protection check into lots of
stages or check the protection system in many different parts of your program.
For each stage, set a new global variable to a known value and away from
the protection routines check your global variables to see if they have been set
properly, if they don't check out then you know that your protection calls have
been bypassed so simply abort the program. Also, set some timers around the
protection checking, again using global variables to record the time taken to
execute certain parts of your program, if the time taken is too long, abort the
application because you know you are being debugged. This makes life for the
hacker alot harder, and doesn't take too much coding effort.

--
CHeers
Fenton Webb
Developer Technical
Services
Autodesk, UK

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"Jim Short" <jim@tahlcam.com>
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IMHO

Using the AutoCAD serial number is a good way to
lock software. Few people are willing to let their serial number out of
their control.

Another way is to use customers a credit card
number as a key. No one wants to share that number with others.

As far as multiple usage by the same person goes,
restrictions using hardware just cause problems and will not likely
generate more revenue.

Jim

[Anonymous]

I have a different but related problem and I hope someone could help answer my questions. I bought a copy of 3D Studio Max in 1999 and never used it. I never registered it and never got the authorization code. I was not a computer savy person . Is it too late to register it and get the authorization code? I still have the software lock, receipt, the original software box, serial number. I went to Autodesk registration website and register the software today; it recognize my name and gave am an activation code. Is this activation code the same as authorization code? I keyed in the activation code I got from autodesk website but I still cannot get the software to run. I don't know what should I do next. Can anyone out there help? Thanks