Hello,
We want to add a secret code which is the expiration date and the number of
uses of the trial software in storage. Saving this code in the Windows
Registry is not a good choice, because the user may not have access right.
Also adding it to IsolatedStorage is for one user and is not for all the
users. Eventhough I thought IsolatedStorage could help on this.
I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in
a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code.
Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it
will expire at the specified date or the number of uses?
Regards,
--
Mike 8 1935
typically there are 2 places you hsould be able to write in all
circumstances:
- the registry hive for the application
- the aplication's app data directory
"Mike9900" <Mi******@discu ssions.microsof t.com> wrote in message
news:B2******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Hello,
We want to add a secret code which is the expiration date and the number of uses of the trial software in storage. Saving this code in the Windows Registry is not a good choice, because the user may not have access right. Also adding it to IsolatedStorage is for one user and is not for all the users. Eventhough I thought IsolatedStorage could help on this.
I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code. Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it will expire at the specified date or the number of uses?
Regards, -- Mike
Registry Aplication Hive could be deleted by the user as well as the
application app directory. Is it possible to give an example code in both
cases? For me these two cases are not secure, but I see that Windows XP or
some other apps write in a secure place until they are activated. Where does
Windows write the key until it is activate?
--
Mike
"Lloyd Dupont" wrote: typically there are 2 places you hsould be able to write in all circumstances: - the registry hive for the application - the aplication's app data directory
"Mike9900" <Mi******@discu ssions.microsof t.com> wrote in message news:B2******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Hello,
We want to add a secret code which is the expiration date and the number of uses of the trial software in storage. Saving this code in the Windows Registry is not a good choice, because the user may not have access right. Also adding it to IsolatedStorage is for one user and is not for all the users. Eventhough I thought IsolatedStorage could help on this.
I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code. Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it will expire at the specified date or the number of uses?
Regards, -- Mike
> I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code. Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it will expire at the specified date or the number of uses?
Store the data in the application's registry hive, and require the key to
be present for the application to start. To stop users from changing the
expiration date you can use the Cryptography classes to calculate a hash
for the expiration data.
Anders Norås http://dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/anoras/
In this case you don't have reinvent the wheel. Check out
sharewarestarte rkit.com.
--
William Stacey [MVP]
"Mike9900" <Mi******@discu ssions.microsof t.com> wrote in message
news:B2******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Hello,
We want to add a secret code which is the expiration date and the number of uses of the trial software in storage. Saving this code in the Windows Registry is not a good choice, because the user may not have access right. Also adding it to IsolatedStorage is for one user and is not for all the users. Eventhough I thought IsolatedStorage could help on this.
I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code. Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it will expire at the specified date or the number of uses?
Regards, -- Mike
What if the user uninstall and then install the application? If the user
unistalls the application and then delete the application hive and then
install the application, it will add a new key to the registry upon
installation. We need a place in the registry that if the user uninstalls the
application and deletes the application hive it won't remove the secret key
or the expiration date.
By the application hive do you mean in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACH INE\SOFTWARE\Co mpany\Applicati on ? or another place?
--
Mike
"Anders Norås" wrote: I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code. Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it will expire at the specified date or the number of uses? Store the data in the application's registry hive, and require the key to be present for the application to start. To stop users from changing the expiration date you can use the Cryptography classes to calculate a hash for the expiration data.
Anders Norås http://dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/anoras/
Hello
Perhaps writing encrypted values in the registry not during
installation but upon first startup and in two locations, one not
associated with the app. I believe the only way to delete it would
be a registry edit of both locations. I realize that the keys would
be left over if the app is uninstalled and thus the app would not
be a good registry citizen but its hard to come up with
reasonably secure means.
"Mike9900" <Mi******@discu ssions.microsof t.com> wrote in message
news:B2******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Hello,
We want to add a secret code which is the expiration date and the number of uses of the trial software in storage. Saving this code in the Windows Registry is not a good choice, because the user may not have access right. Also adding it to IsolatedStorage is for one user and is not for all the users. Eventhough I thought IsolatedStorage could help on this.
I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code. Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it will expire at the specified date or the number of uses?
Regards, -- Mike
Sounds nice, but does anyone knows of any algorithm I can use for this purpose?
--
Mike
"WRH" wrote: Hello
Perhaps writing encrypted values in the registry not during installation but upon first startup and in two locations, one not associated with the app. I believe the only way to delete it would be a registry edit of both locations. I realize that the keys would be left over if the app is uninstalled and thus the app would not be a good registry citizen but its hard to come up with reasonably secure means.
"Mike9900" <Mi******@discu ssions.microsof t.com> wrote in message news:B2******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Hello,
We want to add a secret code which is the expiration date and the number of uses of the trial software in storage. Saving this code in the Windows Registry is not a good choice, because the user may not have access right. Also adding it to IsolatedStorage is for one user and is not for all the users. Eventhough I thought IsolatedStorage could help on this.
I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and number in a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that code. Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, so it will expire at the specified date or the number of uses?
Regards, -- Mike
Most times it is done with a public/private key pair. The server signs a
license (full, or trial) and the license has an expire date and license
type - among other fields you want to track. This could be just a simple
xml file in plain text. The signature could only be signed with your
private key at your server site. Then distro the license files as needed
(purchased, etc). If the user does not have a valid license file, your
program stays in eval mode (for example.) So absence or presents of a
license file is the controlling factor, not some reg key that you can't
really hide anyway. The program verifies the license and signature using
the public key. It gets a bit more complex as now this license will work
for anyone. So you also want to factor in a machine hash so that means they
need to send you a machine hash (that your program calculates) and that is
stored in the license. The program also verifies the machine hash in
license against a new machine hash that calculated at each startup to see if
they match. Simple in the abstract, but the devil is in all those details.
That is why I pointed you to the MS code that already does all this for you.
--
William Stacey [MVP]
"Mike9900" <Mi******@discu ssions.microsof t.com> wrote in message
news:48******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... Sounds nice, but does anyone knows of any algorithm I can use for this purpose? -- Mike
"WRH" wrote:
Hello
Perhaps writing encrypted values in the registry not during installation but upon first startup and in two locations, one not associated with the app. I believe the only way to delete it would be a registry edit of both locations. I realize that the keys would be left over if the app is uninstalled and thus the app would not be a good registry citizen but its hard to come up with reasonably secure means.
"Mike9900" <Mi******@discu ssions.microsof t.com> wrote in message news:B2******** *************** ***********@mic rosoft.com... > Hello, > > We want to add a secret code which is the expiration date and the > number > of > uses of the trial software in storage. Saving this code in the Windows > Registry is not a good choice, because the user may not have access > right. > Also adding it to IsolatedStorage is for one user and is not for all > the > users. Eventhough I thought IsolatedStorage could help on this. > > I am wondering how and where we could add the expiration date and > number > in > a safe place, so it will be hard for the user to find and delete that > code. > Is there any other idea on how to manage the trail software expiration, > so > it > will expire at the specified date or the number of uses? > > Regards, > -- > Mike > This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion. Similar topics |
by: Francisco |
last post by:
I have this problem:
I have a database with information about games, and users are able to vote
for them. Everytime a user votes for a game I store the unique game name
into a session variable (an array). So if they are in a page were they
already voted, they won't have the option to do so.
The idea is that the session cookie lasts "forever", I don't want them
voting for the same game everytime they get to the site. This isn't soo
strict,...
|
by: Sean |
last post by:
HI,
I have a shopping cart in which I am trying to use breadcrumb style
navgiation. I need to be able to display the categroy heading relating to
the section of the site a visitor is using i.e If a user is in the "camera"
section I need to display that heading as a link "camera", however in order
to do this at the moment I am querying the database and storing the
recordset in the application object (see below). I should imaging there is...
|
by: Peter Hardy |
last post by:
Hi guys,
Sorry for the cross-post but I got no response in the asp.net newsgroup.
I am trying to develop a mini e-learning application where the user provides
content for each page. Eventually, I'd like to shift to using templates but
at the moment the users is just entering content using html. Whats the best
way to allow the user to do this and whats the best way of ensuring the html
is valid before I store it in my database / xml...
|
by: - Steve - |
last post by:
I have a website that uses forms based authentication. In the logon.aspx
page a user enters a username and password. It is then authenticated
against Active Directory.
After that point on any page in the directory I can access the username
using HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name, but I can't figure out how to
access the password in plain text. Back at the logon.aspx page if I could
store the password that is submitted the...
|
by: Morten Mikkelsen |
last post by:
Hi,
On my SQL Server 2000, I have a table of data (tblAllData) containing a
number of columns, some of which are 'secret'.
I have to let some users access the database using ODBC from an Excel
sheet, and I would like that they do not know at all that the columns exist.
I tried creating a view for them (qryAllData) that only selects the
columns that should be visible, but when the creating the
ODBC-connection, both the query and the...
| |
by: (PeteCresswell) |
last post by:
User wants to go this route instead of storing pointers in the DB and the
documents outside.
Only time I tried it was with only MS Word docs - and that was a loooong time
ago - and it seemed to me like there were performance issues at the time.
How about the different types? The MS docs I would expect Access to
differentiate and handle appropriately (i.e. .DOC and .XLS).. but how about
..PDF? and can I stash a .TXT document in the...
|
by: per9000 |
last post by:
Hi all,
I want to create an encryption program and started thinking about not
storing sensitive information in the memory since I guess someone
might steal my computer an scan my memory.
So I wrote this method for getting a password from the console and
converting it to an array of bytes for later use in the encryption
algorithm.
The weak point as I see it is the storage of the password - it will be
|
by: webcm123 |
last post by:
I'm looking for a good method of securing ratings. Cookies lock isn't
sufficient. In addition to cookies I would need something else. I'm
introducing some ways.
-= Storing rates inside seperate tables =-
Seperate tables (artrates, filerates, imgrates) will contain:
ID of item | rate | user | IP
1 rate = 1 record. Field USER will filled if only registered users can
|
by: Eric Wertman |
last post by:
I've a number of scripts set up that require a username/password
combination to log in elsewhere. It's gotten to the point where I
need to keep them in a more secure location, instead of just in the
scripts themselves. I did a bit of searching, and haven't come up
with a great way to store passwords using 2-way encryption (I have to
send them as plain text). Has anyone seen anything that fits this
need? I whipped up something using...
|
by: marktang |
last post by:
ONU (Optical Network Unit) is one of the key components for providing high-speed Internet services. Its primary function is to act as an endpoint device located at the user's premises. However, people are often confused as to whether an ONU can Work As a Router. In this blog post, we’ll explore What is ONU, What Is Router, ONU & Router’s main usage, and What is the difference between ONU and Router. Let’s take a closer look !
Part I. Meaning of...
|
by: Hystou |
last post by:
Most computers default to English, but sometimes we require a different language, especially when relocating. Forgot to request a specific language before your computer shipped? No problem! You can effortlessly switch the default language on Windows 10 without reinstalling. I'll walk you through it.
First, let's disable language synchronization. With a Microsoft account, language settings sync across devices. To prevent any complications,...
| |
by: Oralloy |
last post by:
Hello folks,
I am unable to find appropriate documentation on the type promotion of bit-fields when using the generalised comparison operator "<=>".
The problem is that using the GNU compilers, it seems that the internal comparison operator "<=>" tries to promote arguments from unsigned to signed.
This is as boiled down as I can make it.
Here is my compilation command:
g++-12 -std=c++20 -Wnarrowing bit_field.cpp
Here is the code in...
|
by: jinu1996 |
last post by:
In today's digital age, having a compelling online presence is paramount for businesses aiming to thrive in a competitive landscape. At the heart of this digital strategy lies an intricately woven tapestry of website design and digital marketing. It's not merely about having a website; it's about crafting an immersive digital experience that captivates audiences and drives business growth.
The Art of Business Website Design
Your website is...
|
by: tracyyun |
last post by:
Dear forum friends,
With the development of smart home technology, a variety of wireless communication protocols have appeared on the market, such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Each protocol has its own unique characteristics and advantages, but as a user who is planning to build a smart home system, I am a bit confused by the choice of these technologies. I'm particularly interested in Zigbee because I've heard it does some...
|
by: agi2029 |
last post by:
Let's talk about the concept of autonomous AI software engineers and no-code agents. These AIs are designed to manage the entire lifecycle of a software development project—planning, coding, testing, and deployment—without human intervention. Imagine an AI that can take a project description, break it down, write the code, debug it, and then launch it, all on its own....
Now, this would greatly impact the work of software developers. The idea...
|
by: isladogs |
last post by:
The next Access Europe User Group meeting will be on Wednesday 1 May 2024 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC+1) and finishing by 19:30 (7.30PM).
In this session, we are pleased to welcome a new presenter, Adolph Dupré who will be discussing some powerful techniques for using class modules.
He will explain when you may want to use classes instead of User Defined Types (UDT). For example, to manage the data in unbound forms.
Adolph will...
|
by: TSSRALBI |
last post by:
Hello
I'm a network technician in training and I need your help.
I am currently learning how to create and manage the different types of VPNs and I have a question about LAN-to-LAN VPNs.
The last exercise I practiced was to create a LAN-to-LAN VPN between two Pfsense firewalls, by using IPSEC protocols.
I succeeded, with both firewalls in the same network. But I'm wondering if it's possible to do the same thing, with 2 Pfsense firewalls...
| |
by: 6302768590 |
last post by:
Hai team
i want code for transfer the data from one system to another through IP address by using C# our system has to for every 5mins then we have to update the data what the data is updated we have to send another system
| |