user validation

[t0ddie]

hey all. been awhile since i posted

i was looking for a secure way to make an application that will be able to have a registration key for users and block 2 instances of the application from running at the same time.

like.. joe shmoe buys your application, and decides to give the registration key to his friend which is fine, but only one of them can use the application at a time.

i know i could validate the registration codes by putting them in a file on my server (unsecurely im sure since i just use a .txt file) but i would need to have the application write its unique registration code to a file on my server to be able to check for other instances of that application already running. thats where i have no ideas.

i would appreciate ideas on a relatively secure way of doing this.

Edited June 5, 2006 by t0ddie

[JSThePatriot]

hey all. been awhile since i posted

i was looking for a secure way to make an application that will be able to have a registration key for users and block 2 instances of the application from running at the same time.

like.. joe shmoe buys your application, and decides to give the registration key to his friend which is fine, but only one of them can use the application at a time.

i know i could validate the registration codes by putting them in a file on my server (unsecurely im sure since i just use a .txt file) but i would need to have the application write its unique registration code to a file on my server to be able to check for other instances of that application already running. thats where i have no ideas.

i would appreciate ideas on a relatively secure way of doing this.

Do you know PHP or some other web language other than HTML? (Dynamic language that is)

Your script could access a page on your server that one of those languages could take values from a URL and use to "Authenticate"

You could have some sort of RANDOM number generated upon first run of the program (someone wrote some sort of first run protection). Everytime the program was run it could check on the INET for a page and if it returned a certain item then continue if not then post out a message to the user letting him know that he isnt on the oringinal install computer.

Then make sure you have an email setup to accept email from people complaining about needing it on a new HDD or something and other wise.

Also you could install a random file on the HDD some where, allow the program to check if that file exists (should be installed using an installer) This would ensure that someone wouldnt just copy the .exe to another computer and it be allowed to run as the First Run program that was in the scripts and scraps actually re-writes the .exe I do believe.

I hope this gives you some ideas and direction. There are so many ways you could go with this.

WB btw,

JS

[Xenobiologist]

Hi,

maybe my _runOnlyOnThis() func (look at my sig) gives you some ideas, too.

So long,

Mega

[JoshDB]

I had a program that obtained the MAC address of a computer. The user sent in their MAC and I added it to a list and then uploaded it. The main program downloaded the list and then checked through the whole thing, checking for authentication.

It was pretty cool.

[t0ddie]

i was thinking along the lines of php.. like when you log onto a site i could use that.

but i dont know php lol

i want to make it so it can be used and shared.. but only one registered software can be run at a time.

so i wont be using the file hiding method.

thanks for the tips

Edited June 7, 2006 by t0ddie