key diskette

[sushil]

How to create a key diskette for my software in C orc++

sushil.

[kedaman]

what do you mean by key diskette?

[sushil]

say u have a s/w which needs to be protected. So we czn have a floppy as key disk to stop the piracy of the s/w

sushil.

[parksie]

What if they don't have a floppy drive?

*smirk*

BTW I'm deadly serious, half the PCs at work don't have them and the one on my desk has a disabled CD-ROM and floppy drive (prevent viruses getting onto the system).

[Zaei]

And iMacs dont come with them, If i remember correctly.

Z.

[sushil]

hello,
see the s/w i m talking of is for the commercial purposes i think every PC has a floppy drive if it is used commercially.
my question is do u know how to make such a disk to avoid the piracy of s/w.

regards,
sushil.

[pskyboy]

Yes this is relatively easy to do whta you basically do is get your software installer to check for a file on the floppy and if its not there it won't install. Or you could have the check in your actuall software so if the floppys not in the drive teh software won't load.


The big problem is someone can just copy the file of the floppy this is what you will have to protect against. The way i suggest you do this is to place in the file your checking for on the floppy a hash of the floppy ID and a unique identifier of your software i.e. a unique ID or Hash of the name of the software.

The problem is i don't know if floppys have unique ID's if they do your sorted. All you do is put the floppy id and unique id into a hash in a file on the floppy then get your installer or software to hash the unique id and floppy id and compare it to the hash in the file and if they verify the software installs or runs if not it doesn't.

If however the floppy doesn't contain an ID as i suspect they won't i suggest you make one and stick on cylinder 0 so that the floppy isn't readable. The problem here is you will have to use low level code to then read the floppy.

Anyway
If you like what im saying post another post and ill try and give you more details on how to go about it.

Peter

[pskyboy]

Write ive just checked

Floppy drives do have a unique ID but this changes whenever they are formatted.

So my question for you is thsi how secure do these key disks have to be. Because a competant computer user will be able to give another floppy the same ID and copy the file. But if your software is only going to be used by people with minimal computer expertise and has little value to anyone outside the area of buisness ie it won't be something everyone wants to pirate you will be alright using the ID on teh floppy.

If this is a problem you need to look at another way of doing this.


Peter

[kedaman]

I'd say it'd be rather costly for copy protection, and it doesn't protect your prog from being cracked.

[pskyboy]

Write ive just checked

Floppy drives do have a unique ID but this changes whenever they are formatted.

So my question for you is thsi how secure do these key disks have to be. Because a competant computer user will be able to give another floppy the same ID and copy the file. But if your software is only going to be used by people with minimal computer expertise and has little value to anyone outside the area of buisness ie it won't be something everyone wants to pirate you will be alright using the ID on teh floppy.

If this is a problem you need to look at another way of doing this.


Peter

[sushil]

Thanks peter!!
i will try and use ur idea to secure my s/w.
yes, my s/w is going to be used my ppl with less expertise.
but if u cud have any other way of providing security for my s/w..it will be welcome.
Also if u have the code snippet of this it will be helpful...
u can mail me at my personal email address.

Regards,
sushil.

[pskyboy]

Sorry Sushil

I don't have any code since i have never done this it was just a way it could be done.

When it comes to more secure ways they require specialist hadware like dongels. But at the end of teh day it comes down to how much is yor software worth i mean if its £500+ ($500+) then it would be worht looking at dongels. These are pieces of hardware that plug in the USB or parralel port and stop software being used without one.

Otherwise i would just stick to the idea you got at the moment.

For the hashing i suggest you use the SHA algorithm this can be found in teh cryptoAPI.

Peter

[nabeels786]

people at my work palce have software that can only be used with a certain key device hooked up to a parallel port - its a security thing for the software. i think its pointless, but whatever.

come software here is also protected by disk, all they do is check a file, and make sure its coming from a floppy drive, and yea they do check the floppy id number or something.

but i think they're special kind of floppy disks, because i know for a fact that they cant be formatted

[pskyboy]

Yeah the special floopys are actauly floppys that contain a smartmedia card inside them.


Peter

[amac]

people at my work palce have software that can only be used with a certain key device hooked up to a parallel port - its a security thing for the software. i think its pointless, but whatever.

Why is this pointless?

[nabeels786]

well, because it is.paying 15000$+ for the software (well thats what my dad said it costs, and he uses it so hed know), and then having to plug something in as proof that i bought it is kinda stupid imo

[amac]

Not really... If you were spending $15,000... wouldn't you wanna protect your investment with more than just a serial number... I think I would...

It'd be like buying a car for $15,000 that didn't have locks on it...

The purpose of the dongle is more to stop others from using it rather than proof of ownership...

Dog collars show proof of ownership... its not gonna stop anyone from stealing the dog...