Keygens, Cracks, Etc.
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A neat approach I saw a many years ago was to base the security on the customer name / company name. This was a special accounting package and the company name appeared on every report. There was an innocent looking option to change the company name. Legit users wouldn't think of changing the name. Someone who copied the code and actually wanted to use it changed the name the first chance they got. Then the program deleted some key parts. There was the occasional service call when a company changed its name but the humorous calls were usually from someone who hit it accidently and told us the original name on the code (so you know where it was copied from ;-) This method only really worked because of the particular application. The reports were eventually given to end customers of the company that bought the software. You really couldn't be showing another company's name on it. maybe this is a new approach - instead of preventing access think up a reason why the pirate would trigger a software deletion on his own. chris
Hi Chris! You're right! In your protection scheme you can "damage" anything, which belongs to your program, but you've to declare it somewhere in the documentation with 3pt font :-))) to be lawful. If someone copy a system, and like to use that, that's lame. If someone really want to use a system, what was copied, find someone in the "neighbourhood" to take a look at the program, and he tell about what he saw: I changed the name, then some files was deleted....nowadays, every copy is travelling on CDs, which is read only :-) So this deleting scheme is very weak, and easy to crack. If a programmer take a look at some commercial system, there was a lot of them, what was "uncrackable"...but there is no uncrackable protection. FlexLM licensing system for example is a good one, but the main parts are fully revealed by clever crackers....and the company can't change their existing sold licenses.....I hope you know what am I trying to point at.... Good luck in protecting! Kopi PS: search for "how to protect better" on the net...some crackers give helpful info on protection!!!! Crackers knows more about protecting, because they(we) see it from the reverse side :-))
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Hi! Well, I've just been notified that two of my programs have keygens available for download. I look at this in two ways. 1st. It sucks. For obvious reasons. 2nd. Wow...somebody actually liked my software to waste a bunch of time tearing it up to figure out the registration algorithm. So, my question is...short of re-writing all my programs to use a shareware/release version (stripped down) and creating dual releases...how can we prevent this sort of thing? Its obvious that we as software developers are vulnerable to this sort of thing. How do we make our software crack proof? Fran
I've recently noticed Microsoft using a new approach to prevent their Age of Empires II game from being pirated. They require the original CD to be in the drive for the game to start. If you make a copy of the CD and try it, it just prompts you for the original CD. This leads me to believe that they have something special on the original CD that the program looks for when it starts. So essentially, the CD behaves like a dongle. Pretty clever, don't you think
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Hi! Well, I've just been notified that two of my programs have keygens available for download. I look at this in two ways. 1st. It sucks. For obvious reasons. 2nd. Wow...somebody actually liked my software to waste a bunch of time tearing it up to figure out the registration algorithm. So, my question is...short of re-writing all my programs to use a shareware/release version (stripped down) and creating dual releases...how can we prevent this sort of thing? Its obvious that we as software developers are vulnerable to this sort of thing. How do we make our software crack proof? Fran
We're facing most of the same issues that are being discussed on this thread. Here is a technical question that probably should be asked in a different forum: What is the best way to transmit user information via the internet to our web server where a database is accessed and a special code generated which is sent back to the installation program - all transparently to the user. I'm a C++/MFC programmer with no experience with ActiveX, Java, ASP, VB or any other internet language. Our install program is Install Shield. Thanks, Dave Saulnie
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First off, I'm a veteran of shareware, both as a programmer and a user, having been "doing it" since the C64 days, and have done it for C64, Apple ][, Macintosh, Win3.1 and Win32. I’ve been around this issue for a very long while, and have done a lot of research into it. The bad news: As others have put it, if it's on the computer, it can be cracked, given enough time. Doing separate builds - one for trial, one for full - doesn't really solve anything. It may make your “manager” types happy, but someone will still buy it, get the full version, demand a refund, and then post the program everywhere. Yes, this has happened to me. Using a 3rd party protection tool is a SERIOUS waste of money - they all have a formulistic crack or patching method, and I haven't seen any pass a half-assed attempt. Examples: www.gamecopyworld.com, astalavista.box.sk, crackstore.com, suddendischarge.com, and w3.to/protocols - you can sadly find lots and lots of others. Anytime I hear about a game that’s “gone gold” on avault, almost always there is a crack ALREADY UP on gamecopyworld.com – and the thing hasn’t even hit my local MicroCenter’s shelves yet! As for people willing to use development tools and other stuff without paying for them: yes they do - check ANY of the binaries newsgroups if your ISP carries them. Borland 5 C++ compiler is free, yet people seem willing to trade VC++ and Metrowerks. Now, the good news: Generally, the reason people pay for a product is less than trialware and being forced to buy, than actually getting something for the money, be it continual upgrades, or helpful tech support (of course, if you did a good job on code and docs, tech support is probably minimal). If you find that people are ripping you off for a $30 program, try dropping the price to $20 - if they are still doing it then, then there is nothing you can do, and perhaps your program needs a re-write, if it's irritating people that much. Combating the cracks or keygens falls into two groups: if it's a patch (crack) to your program, simply make a new version. Hell, make one a week. I recommend using something like UPX or Shrinker to compress/encode the exe if this is a continual patching problem – this causes the exe image to change more than normal. If the problem is a keygen (making a new key), the crackers usually use something like "UpN Phrac-e" or “TNO-LamerBeach” or some such stupid thing. Gather all the keygens, and lock out the names. If you can det
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We're facing most of the same issues that are being discussed on this thread. Here is a technical question that probably should be asked in a different forum: What is the best way to transmit user information via the internet to our web server where a database is accessed and a special code generated which is sent back to the installation program - all transparently to the user. I'm a C++/MFC programmer with no experience with ActiveX, Java, ASP, VB or any other internet language. Our install program is Install Shield. Thanks, Dave Saulnie
Dave there are a variety of ways of doing this, One I can suggest really easy to implement is to host a hidden webbrowser control that posts data to a http: site and the site returns the data via a mini webpage to the users PC: A Hacker/Cracker can bust this in Seconds if they no what to look for, and if the user is operating behind a firewall, they'll have to set up a rule to permit your app doing this. Also have a look at this article and consider increasing the identification to the URLS Name Still a Firewall Rule will probably have to be set up for this to work ;-0 Regardz Colin Davies
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I've recently noticed Microsoft using a new approach to prevent their Age of Empires II game from being pirated. They require the original CD to be in the drive for the game to start. If you make a copy of the CD and try it, it just prompts you for the original CD. This leads me to believe that they have something special on the original CD that the program looks for when it starts. So essentially, the CD behaves like a dongle. Pretty clever, don't you think
Actually, pretty lame. See www.gamecopyworld.com for the crack. These "methods" are so trivial to break any more the cracks are calling them the "scratch and sniff" method
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I've recently noticed Microsoft using a new approach to prevent their Age of Empires II game from being pirated. They require the original CD to be in the drive for the game to start. If you make a copy of the CD and try it, it just prompts you for the original CD. This leads me to believe that they have something special on the original CD that the program looks for when it starts. So essentially, the CD behaves like a dongle. Pretty clever, don't you think
The name of the protection is C'Dilla. If you're interested in the protection, go to www.cdilla.com for more information. Kop
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The name of the protection is C'Dilla. If you're interested in the protection, go to www.cdilla.com for more information. Kop
Sorry, the correct address is www.c-dilla.co
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Hi! Well, I've just been notified that two of my programs have keygens available for download. I look at this in two ways. 1st. It sucks. For obvious reasons. 2nd. Wow...somebody actually liked my software to waste a bunch of time tearing it up to figure out the registration algorithm. So, my question is...short of re-writing all my programs to use a shareware/release version (stripped down) and creating dual releases...how can we prevent this sort of thing? Its obvious that we as software developers are vulnerable to this sort of thing. How do we make our software crack proof? Fran
Quite honestly I never really bother with trying to make software I work on difficult to crack. Firstly, as many people have already stated, if somebody wants to crack your software, they will. Secondly, anybody who actually installs cracked software was never likely to actually purchase a copy from you anyway. When you want to buy the latest MS product, do you search all of the warez sites? - or do you pick up the nearest computer software catalogue? Saying this, I do frequently visit a whole list of 'top' warez sites, etc, to keep on top of what is happening to software packages I have worked on. I do laugh a bit when I see some software that I have worked on available to download - it is nice to know somebody out there liked it enough to crack it. Also, I have to admit that I 'leaked' a 'special' version of some software I was working on about a year ago to most of the warez sites, etc, that had a whole range of dead-ends for the crackers to follow. Even now that the final release has been out around 4 months, it has not yet been cracked. The crackers probably remeber the hard time they had with the 'dummy' version! This isn't to say that ignoring the possibility is good, but you lose more money trying to combat these cheaters than you'd ever making selling software to them
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Hi! Well, I've just been notified that two of my programs have keygens available for download. I look at this in two ways. 1st. It sucks. For obvious reasons. 2nd. Wow...somebody actually liked my software to waste a bunch of time tearing it up to figure out the registration algorithm. So, my question is...short of re-writing all my programs to use a shareware/release version (stripped down) and creating dual releases...how can we prevent this sort of thing? Its obvious that we as software developers are vulnerable to this sort of thing. How do we make our software crack proof? Fran