On Sep 16, 2006, at 3:00 AM, Steven Hedgepeth wrote:
I found the following URL to be informative:
http://www.woodmann.com/crackz/Tutorials/Protect.htm
At the bottom of the page is Top Protection Tips or things to
avoid. It is written by a hacker, obviously. As smart as he
appears to be, I don't understand why he doesn't spend his time in
pursuits that contribute to reducing suffering in the world, or at
least to
increasing the size of his wallet if nothing else.
Very interesting read (BTW, I fixed the link above by adding extra
space).
I actually purchased the book "Crack proof your software" by Pavol
Cerven. I read it through... understood very little of it, realized
that I do not have enough information about REALbasic to apply the
techniques within REALbasic (though it might be possible in a
plugin), and then gave the book to a co-worker who managed the
software copy-protection for the company I worked for.
In my opinion, the issue of KeyGen software is probably the most
frustrating to combat.
Basically, instead of trying to disable the copy-protection like a
crack would do, the pirate would focus on reverse engineering only
your serial code algorithm. Once they have the algorithm, they will
generate a list of serial numbers and distribute them to the masses.
This includes serial numbers which legitimate users have purchased as
well as serial numbers that would take *years* to get to at your
current rate of sales. One technique that I have to limit this
effect is to only validate numbers within a certain range that I
specify... such as the first 500 out of a possible million valid
serial numbers. When I get close to the limit, I modify the
application and update the application on the website (this doesn't
even require the app to be recompiled they way I designed the
system). In fact, if I discover a KeyGen list of my serial numbers,
I can void the ones in the list and reissue the serial numbers to my
valid customers (of course a new KeyGen could be generated, but they
have to be aware that their old codes don't work).
I actually enjoy working on this type of stuff. But improving my
technique it is not directly producing an income, so I have to set it
aside to focus on creating real products.
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