In that case I would obscure the key as best I could. Lot's of ways to do this like breaking it down into pieces stored in different parts of the app as const and/or different ini settings that appear to be something else. I never did it but one guy that I was talking to used a txt file with instructions that couldn't be removed and then had a function in the application read a word so many counts into the second paragraph and use that as the key. Unless the users are sophisticated enough to dissemble the app or break the code any of these should be good enough.
from Robert Meek dba Tangentals Design CCopyright 2006 Proud to be a moderator of "The Delphi Lists" at elists.org (["An unused program is the consequence of a higher logic!", nil]) As written in The Compendium of Accepted Robotic and Surrlogic Theorems Used in the Self Analysis of Elemental Positronic Pathways...1st Edition Revised -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob Cameron Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 10:26 AM To: [email protected] Subject: re: Secure text in apps Robert, Thanks for the quick reply and I agree with what you said. I didn't explain myself well. Let's take a hypothetical case. Suppose I have an app where I want to keep track of how often and when the app is used: perhaps for licensing reasons, perhaps for management stats on the real-life demand for the software, or tracking regular use for training purposes - whatever ... this is hypothetical. There is no reason for users to log-in (and they don't want to anyway) and I'd rather the users don't have access to the stats I keep. So I decide to save a text file alongside the exe file and save short strings in the file, sometimes adding strings, sometimes modifying them but always encrypting them. To encrypt the strings the app needs a key and I need the same key to decrypt it when I get to see the text files. Sometimes I want the app itself to decrypt the strings to make use of the data. What's the best way to provide the key in the app in such a way that users can't find it? Regards Rob _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi
