Penetration Testing mailing list archives
Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection?
From: "Victor A. Rodriguez" <victor () bit-man com ar>
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 01:19:59 -0200
Hi Harold and all, The following message was sent by "Harold Thimm" <haroldthimm () hotmail com> on Mon, 04 Jun 2001 19:43:35 -0000:
I'm looking for any information on incorporating dongles into a software package for copy protection. In particular, I'm looking for information on the Rainbow Technologies Sentinel, but advice on dongle-based copy protection in general is appreciated.
OK, you asked for it ... if you take a look at "The futility of digital copy prevention" (http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0105.html#3) you'll have a look at it.
How easy/difficult is it to break this kind of copy-protection? Are there any known weaknesses in the dongle-type systems themselves (as opposed to implementation weaknesses?)
One thing that can be done is look at the dongle as a black box, monitor the answers to the stimuli, and build a software piece that can trap these stmuli and perform like the dongle (just a thought). BTW, have you made a search in http://www.phrack.com or any other search engine ?? Perhaps using "dongle" or "copy protection" you'll have some good look. Cheers -- Victor A. Rodriguez (http://www.bit-man.com.ar) El bit Fantasma (Bit-Man) "aMail: a lot of fun in a bunch of Perl scripts"
Current thread:
- How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Harold Thimm (Jun 04)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? shampster (Jun 05)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Ben Meghreblian (Jun 05)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Jonah Kowall (Jun 05)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Victor A. Rodriguez (Jun 05)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Felix Huber (Jun 05)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Ryan Permeh (Jun 05)
- RE: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Pedro Hugo (Jun 05)
- RE: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? c0ncept (Jun 05)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Jordan Frank (Jun 06)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? shampster (Jun 05)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Ryan Permeh (Jun 06)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Daniel Roethlisberger (Jun 06)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Ryan Permeh (Jun 06)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Ryan Permeh (Jun 05)
- Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection? Maximiliano Caceres (Jun 06)