1. Home
  2. Electronics Design
  3. Generating Software Keys

Generating Software Keys

Can someone refer me a newsgroup (or ??) where I can get info on the following: Or help, if you know how to do this?

I need a way to generate key codes for software. Specifically, we'll send our software on CD's to our customers who will then enter in a specific string of numbers and/or characters.

The software will "test" this entry to see if it is valid (i.e., see if it will even decode), and if it will, then the resulting answer actually represents the customer's account number.

I've seen this done with polynomials, but am now having trouble locating a good reference to actually build it. Or, I would just buy off the shelf.

The only caveat is that I want the answer to be an 6-digit account number, so I need to do this in reverse. Supply the answer, to get the key.

Any ideas? Surely this has been beat to death? If I just knew the Google keywords, that would be a huge headstart...

-mpm

Reply to
mpm
Loading thread data ...

Try googling "public key encryption"

formatting link

It won't give you a direct answer, but may tell you enough to let you know what kind of question you ought to be asking.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Reply to
bill.sloman

drop a line to comp arch embedded, and I think there are a couple of crypto newsgroups, also do a altavista on PGP, used to have links on this sort of stuff

Martin

Reply to
Martin Griffith

I decided to just code a lookup array. Simple, and works. However, I did surf something called "Blowfish", which appears to be a standard. Looked straightforward enough. (In case anyone is interested.?)

The Dallas 1-wire devices also use a CRC system that I probably could have adapted??

But when I really got down to it, all I really needed was "encoding", NOT "encryption". You learn very quickly that there is a huge difference in the two....!!

Thanks anyway.

-mpm

Reply to
mpm

Yes. Encoding can usually be decoded by third parties - teen-aged hackers and the like.

Encryption is usually more secure. Autocad encodes their design files by multiplying them by a pseudo-random binary sequence, which they claim was not intended to encrypt them (though it is difficult to see why they would have bothered if they weren't trying to protect them) probably because this method of encoding is famously easy to decode.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Reply to
bill.sloman

mpm snipped-for-privacy@aol.com posted to sci.electronics.design:

Without reading any responses: I respect you for saying that you would welcome help in doing something outside your reasonable experience. I am certainly able to help you, as is expect Jan P. is, among possibly many others. This is not the place to discuss the details of the requirements let alone the implementation detail of such an endeavor.

I will also attempt to reply separately by email.

Reply to
JosephKK

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.