Copy Guarding

[mike1212]

Hi

I made a script, compiled it and added a pass phase to it.

I would like to know how I can copy guard it.

This way it will not be copied and given out to whom ever.

TY Mike1212

[Valuater]

make a file in the systems folder that your program need to see to run. thi is done during an install or by the pass phrase or???

8)

[seandisanti]

Hi

I made a script, compiled it and added a pass phase to it.

I would like to know how I can copy guard it.

This way it will not be copied and given out to whom ever.

TY Mike1212

there is no such thing as a surefire copy protection. any kind of protection implements some kind of systematic check. for any protection you could think up, there is someone that with the right motivation, would have the ability to either circumvent or reverse engineer your checks. if you don't believe me check out this challenges page. it's a challenges page where people create protections for their programs and submit them to be broken. it's a fun legal application, and a guanteed learning experience.

[mike1212]

there is no such thing as a surefire copy protection. any kind of protection implements some kind of systematic check. for any protection you could think up, there is someone that with the right motivation, would have the ability to either circumvent or reverse engineer your checks. if you don't believe me check out this challenges page. it's a challenges page where people create protections for their programs and submit them to be broken. it's a fun legal application, and a guanteed learning experience.

I agree with no surefire way.

But is there at least a deterrent?

Edited October 7, 2005 by mike1212

[BigDod]

I agree with no surefire way.

But is there at least a deterrent?

As Valuator said build in a search for something that can only exist on the computer you wish to allow execution on or build in a password

[seandisanti]

As Valuator said build in a search for something that can only exist on the computer you wish to allow execution on or build in a password

you could hardcode a computer name if you want it used only for one computer:

if Not @ComputerName = "ThisIsMyPCBeyotch" then exit

that isn't a viable solution of course if this is a program that is expected to be distributed. a password or key is another way to control installs, but whatever your system for generating and checking a key or password it could be reversed. The best way if you really want to make sure noone copies, is to have a web based database that stores registration information and randomly generated keys. the program could check with the database to verify information. this could of course still be circumvented a number of ways, especially by someone who already knows about reverse engineering / cracking. but it would give a certain level of psuedo security, and would prevent most normal users from being able to bypassing the protection. If you went that route though, i would encourage you to look into .exe compression or packing, rather than just relying on autoit's encryption to protect your program from decompiling. Going that route you should also have your checks verified with a serverside script than having the program log into a site or something to verify, because you don't want that information going out with your program. And to go one step farther, you should have the information being sent from client to server being encrypted also, to protect against data manipulation that could potentially allow someone using sql injection, or manually sending their own information to be added prior to verification. i really went on longer than i intended to, but for your copy protection is only going to be worth the amount of effort you put into securing it.