A few issues that need attention

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YogiYang
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 9:22 am

A few issues that need attention

Post by YogiYang »

I have been trying to find an alternative to my current software protection system I was recommended in a forum to check out Enigma Protector as the best alternative. Enigma is really very robust and usable.

But after playing with Enigma (external/envelop protection) here are a few things that I feel should be considered. Consider this some sort of feature or bug fixing request.
  • Facility to transfer license once a software has been registered. I have been using SoftLocx for all these years and it truly is very flexible. In SoftLocx once a copy of software is registered and the user needs to say for example format his/her PC or transfer the software to another PC for whatever reasons there is a facility for user to transfer the license. This process will automatically invalidate existing registration and will generate a number which can be used to re-register the software on another PC. Such functionality is needed in Enigma also.
  • A way to show Registration Dialog after registration. Like for example after a user registers a copy the Registration Dialog does not show up. This is just fine, but for any reason if the user wants to see the registration dialog then how can one see it? I would suggest that when the user starts the software if he/she keeps Control (Ctrl) Key presses it should show the registration screen.
  • Enigma has a very good feature for allowing a user in designing Registration Dialog but after a user edits the registration dialog and then later on decides to go back to the default reg dialog layout then what should be done here. There should be some way for getting the default registration dialog back.
  • After we protect a software using Enigma the most natural thing for anyone is to test the protection on the same PC. Now after testing on the same PC how can we remove the registration/trial information that may have been entered in registry and file? There should be a way to clean sweep such info and remove it completely so that we can test our protection again.
  • Finally I have observed that if we save the Registration Dialog layout to a file to another directory and then later in a new protection project if we try to load the saved file Enigma just crashes without any error messages.
These are just a few things that I observed with Enigma. Besides these few things it is an excellent protection system. But because of these problems/short comings I will have to stick with my age old protection system for a bit longer time. ;)

HTH
Enigma
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:24 pm

Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by Enigma »

Hi YogiYang, let me to follow to the answers to your questions:
YogiYang wrote:Facility to transfer license once a software has been registered. I have been using SoftLocx for all these years and it truly is very flexible. In SoftLocx once a copy of software is registered and the user needs to say for example format his/her PC or transfer the software to another PC for whatever reasons there is a facility for user to transfer the license. This process will automatically invalidate existing registration and will generate a number which can be used to re-register the software on another PC. Such functionality is needed in Enigma also.
No, disagree. This feature is not required for the software protection like Enigma Protector. Usually, software developers are using two models for internet sales.
First model - customer receive license information that user just enters in the protected program, registers, and successfully uses it. In this case, license is not locked to particular PC and using own license information customer may carry license to any PC, without problems.
Second model - developer receive a hardware id from the customer, based on that, developer generates license information that will be valid only on a particular customer PC. In this case, if customer decide to carry license, he will need to contact developer, provide new hardware id and get new license information for another pc. Also, developer may disable the first key/license (so customer will not be able to use license on a both PCs) by means Stolen License feature in Enigma Protector.
YogiYang wrote:A way to show Registration Dialog after registration. Like for example after a user registers a copy the Registration Dialog does not show up. This is just fine, but for any reason if the user wants to see the registration dialog then how can one see it? I would suggest that when the user starts the software if he/she keeps Control (Ctrl) Key presses it should show the registration screen.
I also disagree with this comment. Really, standard Registration Dialog just helps to developer to easy and quickly make an interface that allows customer to enter registration information. But, you may create own registration dialog, no problems! There are set of functions named Enigma API (see http://enigmaprotector.com/en/help/manu ... ef699b91ee) which you may use to manually check/save and load registration information. This way Enigma Protector provides full flexibility.
Even if you do not want to use Enigma API to check/load/save registration information, you may use this one EP_RegShowDialog (manual http://enigmaprotector.com/en/help/manu ... 3e967c0353) to show standard registration dialog with the any conditions you want.
YogiYang wrote:Enigma has a very good feature for allowing a user in designing Registration Dialog but after a user edits the registration dialog and then later on decides to go back to the default reg dialog layout then what should be done here. There should be some way for getting the default registration dialog back.
That's very simple, just create new project and all settings will be set to default. Then you will be able to save default registration dialog from default project to external file and then load it from your normal project.
YogiYang wrote:After we protect a software using Enigma the most natural thing for anyone is to test the protection on the same PC. Now after testing on the same PC how can we remove the registration/trial information that may have been entered in registry and file? There should be a way to clean sweep such info and remove it completely so that we can test our protection again.
This feature already exists in Enigma Protector. In Enigma Protector go to Main Menu - Debug - Reset All Local Information.
YogiYang wrote:Finally I have observed that if we save the Registration Dialog layout to a file to another directory and then later in a new protection project if we try to load the saved file Enigma just crashes without any error messages.
Yes, I agree that there was such bug, Enigma Protector crashed when registration dialog is being loaded from external file. But this bug is fixed in the most latest version.
You may also try Enigma Protector 3.00:
http://enigmaprotector.com/forum/viewto ... f=7&t=1440
It is not stable release, but some bugs are fixed there comparing with the latest DEMO version.
YogiYang
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 9:22 am

Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by YogiYang »

Hello,
Enigma wrote:Second model - developer receive a hardware id from the customer, based on that, developer generates license information that will be valid only on a particular customer PC. In this case, if customer decide to carry license, he will need to contact developer, provide new hardware id and get new license information for another pc. Also, developer may disable the first key/license (so customer will not be able to use license on a both PCs) by means Stolen License feature in Enigma Protector.
This way the use will be easily be able to use more than one copy of the software while paying for only one.

I can't understand, as to how we can disable the first key/license on customer's PC? This is not possible unless the customer asks again for license at time this is possible not other wise. So this means that a user will register a software on one PC and then will after a few days request for a new key giving reason for hardware change. Now the customer is actually using more then one copy of the software while he has paid only one copy.!

I you will say again disable license but when will that come in action only when the customer asks for a license key. And when will this happen? It will happen only and only when the customer has formatted PC or has to reinstall Windows OS and all software for any reason. Not till then!

HTH
Enigma
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Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by Enigma »

YogiYang, unfortunately, people may lie about hardware changes, and ask for an another license to install to one more PC. The protection can't handle such situations, so you should decide yourself, give the customer another license for free or ask to buy.

Anyway, relating to Enigma Protector. If you are using Hardware ID lock by System Volume Serial/Name - you should know that it may be changed after formatting and Windows re-installing. But if you are using Hardware ID lock by HDD Serial and customer tells you that he migrated from Windows XP to Windows Seven (or just re-installed Windows) and his hardware id had been changed - this is a lie.

Regarding any system that allows to carry license from one PC to another. Just imagine, how this can be done? To make things simpler, I tell you. You just run some "license carry" application on PC #1, then save license information to USB drive, then carry it to PC #2. To disable license on the PC #1, the program will write some registry value that will tell to program that license should not work on this PC anymore. What I mean - PC #1 should somewhere store information about license de-activation. Cracker may just reset this information and keep license active on the PC #1 anyway. I do not think it is possible to make ANY protection that could hide de-activation information.

So such "carry license" application is useless.
KeyGen
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2009 4:38 pm

Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by KeyGen »

Hi Enigma,
You are correct and I have same idea.

:(
ZeNiX
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 11:41 am

Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by ZeNiX »

Transferring a License to another PC is almost no good solution for software type protections.
I know it is very popular for dongle protections, as an USB dongle is not easy to be copied and you can plug it to any computer which has USB.

Better solutions for this are:

1. Get Hardware ID from USB dongle or similar device which is not easy to be duplicated.
The bad news is that normal users hate dongles which occupies one USB port.
And even worse, if they have more softwares protected with different dongles.

2. Online check every time we launch a protected excutable.
On the server side, you can decide to allow the program running or not.
If your program is for online users, then it might be good.
But you have to be ready to receive complaints if your server is slow or down.
sanyock
Posts: 60
Joined: Sat May 12, 2012 7:36 am
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Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by sanyock »

Enigma wrote:YogiYang, unfortunately, people may lie about hardware changes, and ask for an another license to install to one more PC. The protection can't handle such situations, so you should decide yourself, give the customer another license for free or ask to buy.

Anyway, relating to Enigma Protector. If you are using Hardware ID lock by System Volume Serial/Name - you should know that it may be changed after formatting and Windows re-installing. But if you are using Hardware ID lock by HDD Serial and customer tells you that he migrated from Windows XP to Windows Seven (or just re-installed Windows) and his hardware id had been changed - this is a lie.

Regarding any system that allows to carry license from one PC to another. Just imagine, how this can be done? To make things simpler, I tell you. You just run some "license carry" application on PC #1, then save license information to USB drive, then carry it to PC #2. To disable license on the PC #1, the program will write some registry value that will tell to program that license should not work on this PC anymore. What I mean - PC #1 should somewhere store information about license de-activation. Cracker may just reset this information and keep license active on the PC #1 anyway. I do not think it is possible to make ANY protection that could hide de-activation information.

So such "carry license" application is useless.
May be a special "removal confirmation code" could be generated when a user clicks "unregister" button and his old license is invalidated. This code could be typed in to a developer's website to autogenerate a new license or at least e-mailed to developer just to confirm a removal of the license. Key generation tool in such case shall have an ability to verify such removals and may be mark them in the user database.
Enigma
Site Admin
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2008 2:24 pm

Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by Enigma »

sanyock wrote:May be a special "removal confirmation code" could be generated when a user clicks "unregister" button and his old license is invalidated. This code could be typed in to a developer's website to autogenerate a new license or at least e-mailed to developer just to confirm a removal of the license. Key generation tool in such case shall have an ability to verify such removals and may be mark them in the user database.
This would be a nice idea, but unfortunately useless too.
Imagine if user passes removal procedure. What would avoid user to register the application on this PC again? Seems nothing.

The idea of removal/re-registration is not ideal and can't be made with 100% safe way.
sanyock
Posts: 60
Joined: Sat May 12, 2012 7:36 am
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Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by sanyock »

Enigma wrote:
sanyock wrote:May be a special "removal confirmation code" could be generated when a user clicks "unregister" button and his old license is invalidated. This code could be typed in to a developer's website to autogenerate a new license or at least e-mailed to developer just to confirm a removal of the license. Key generation tool in such case shall have an ability to verify such removals and may be mark them in the user database.
This would be a nice idea, but unfortunately useless too.
Imagine if user passes removal procedure. What would avoid user to register the application on this PC again? Seems nothing.

The idea of removal/re-registration is not ideal and can't be made with 100% safe way.
I am not sure exactly how it is done in another similar protection tool (which in the whole cost about 10x more), but somehow after this operation it should generate a new hardware id for which the old license should not suit. May be hardware id generation shall have a random part, then it is stored somewhere. Generation shall occur only on first execution and then after each removal, other times when the user tries to enter license the hardware id shall be taken from the storage though internally verified against constant part of the hardware id anyway to avoid storage manipulation.

Btw, that tool seems to use Windows secure storage.

In result we would have this feature working for most users, and if someone tries to reset it in the storage it would be possible only on the same hardware because a hardware id taken from the storage would be verified against a constant part of the actual hardware id.

Though a hard drive image backup/restore after hardware id is generated would be a work around.

May be using a remote internet storage could help, I am not sure. And this remote storage could be used relatively rarely only for registration and unregistration, which may be acceptable for many users.
Enigma
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Re: A few issues that need attention

Post by Enigma »

sanyock wrote:I am not sure exactly how it is done in another similar protection tool (which in the whole cost about 10x more)
There are not so many ways to do this. The protection should keep some information on the user pc that the license is moved and blocked. Deleting this extra information will allow to register program again.
Nothing can be done there.
sanyock wrote:Though a hard drive image backup/restore after hardware id is generated would be a work around.
You may simply use some virtualization tool, like VmWare, to remember the system state.
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