Application licensing with dongles

[gyc]

Hi.

I've seen someone using normal USB pen drives as security dongles for sw licensing.

They actually sell a sw package that will turn any usb pen into a security dongle.

As it seems, it is based on the usb pen hw serial number.

Does anyone know how to retrieve this serial number?

Usual API calls wil not work on usb pens mounted disks, so there must be something more to it; I couldn't find information on the internet.

Cheers.

[bmoyer]

You could ask the people that sell the sw security package how to do it.

[ShaunR]

A simple (not fool-proof) way is just to read the volume serial number of the USB stick. There's the "Windows API" in the CR tat will allow you to do that.

Alternatively, you could read the device ID out of the windows registry.

Edited March 2, 2011 by ShaunR

[gyc]

A simple (not fool-proof) way is just to read the volume serial number of the USB stick. There's the "Windows API" in the CR tat will allow you to do that.

Not fool-proof is exactly the problem.

However the API is quite interesting. Any chance you have a pre-2009 version lying around? (8.x would be nice!0

Alternatively, you could read the device ID out of the windows registry.

Tha is also prone to change.

I need to get the HW serial number from the chip. I have seen posts about it and some talk about example code, that's why I thought someone in the LV sphere could have already done it.

G.

[ShaunR]

Not fool-proof is exactly the problem.

However the API is quite interesting. Any chance you have a pre-2009 version lying around? (8.x would be nice!0

Wow. For once LabVIEW didn't crash when saving to a previous version.

I need to get the HW serial number from the chip. I have seen posts about it and some talk about example code, that's why I thought someone in the LV sphere could have already done it.

I flirted with it a while back (its on here somewhere). The issue is Admin rights. I never got around to revisiting it.

[gyc]

Wow. For once LabVIEW didn't crash when saving to a previous version.

Super!!! Thanks.

I flirted with it a while back (its on here somewhere). The issue is Admin rights. I never got around to revisiting it.

If you happen to dig it up again, pls drop a line!

Thanks again.

G.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

If you happen to dig it up again, pls drop a line!

In general, it's hopeless unless you have a specific USB drive for which you know a proprietary access method to retrieve its chip serial number.

[gyc]

Not quite what I'm looking for.

The idea is to turn common USB flash drives into security dongles.

In general, it's hopeless unless you have a specific USB drive for which you know a proprietary access method to retrieve its chip serial number.

I've seen some discussions and some code samples around.

I just haven't yet had the time to look into it.

And someone else is already doing it: http://www.alkonost.com/antiduplicate/

G.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

And someone else is already doing it: http://www.alkonost.com/antiduplicate/

Naw! They don't seem to read the internal HW serial number of the drive. What they seem to do is preparing some 2MB of data space on the flash Drive with some specific data that is read back by a specially prepared DLL that will return this data after some encryption/decryption. Supposedly they do something to prevent the simple cloning of the flash drive by ghost or similar software. How they do that is not clear and I doubt they will tell you. However it does not seem to read any serial number of the flash drive itself.

[gyc]

Naw! They don't seem to read the internal HW serial number of the drive. What they seem to do is preparing some 2MB of data space on the flash Drive with some specific data that is read back by a specially prepared DLL that will return this data after some encryption/decryption. Supposedly they do something to prevent the simple cloning of the flash drive by ghost or similar software. How they do that is not clear and

How else can a chunk of data be "tied" to a piece of hardware?

In that data there must be "something" specific of that hardware, that does not change with platform, with OS and cannot be easily tweaked by a smart user...

I doubt they will tell you. However it does not seem to read any serial number of the flash drive itself.

Of course they will not tell!...

although secrecy is the worst method for security. Sooner or later (usually sooner) that information leaks out and for all those relying on it it's "duck open season".