Re: How secure are dongles for copy-protection?

[Ben Meghreblian <benmeg () benmeg com>]

At 19:43 04/06/01 +0000, you wrote:
> 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.
>
> 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?)

This site provides an overview of actual weaknesses in several popular 
dongle systems, although nothing technical can be found here :- 
http://www.soft-analysts.com/applications.html

> Are there any dongle-based protection schemes that have been cracked, and 
> if so, how? (A pointer to a URL would be appreciated, if you have it.)

HASP 3 was cracked in about 1998 AFAIK, by dumping the memory of the dongle 
and eventually finding, through luck/judgement/zen, 2 magic lookup tables. 
Read more about it (mostly quite technical) here:- 
http://hackjaponaise.cosm.co.jp/archives/websites/fravia/bayu_2.htm

Also of interest, in terms of your 'how?' question, is this:- 
http://hackjaponaise.cosm.co.jp/archives/websites/fravia/project3.htm

As you correctly state, the weakest point is the software developer's 
implementation of the dongle's APIs. It is interesting to note that in 
several articles I have just been reading, the crackers themselves advise 
that the developers/company would save a great deal of time and money by 
not using dongles, and instead implementing a keyfile or other method of 
copy protection. Obviously these are also vulnerable to attack, but if the 
dongle developer has not written his code well, a keyfile would actually 
cause a cracker a lot more trouble.

Of interest in terms of dongles in general is the fact that late last year, 
under a ruling by the DCMA title "Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention 
of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies", it is 
perfectly legal to reverse engineer and patch dongle protected programs, 
and not only that, but you will encounter several legal companies offering 
this 'service' http://cryptome.org/dmca102700.txt

I would disagree with Jonah's comment that "many hackers can easily make dongle
emulators for various packages" - AFAIK it had been done a few times, but 
even amongst the very best, dongles remain the Everest of cracking.

Cheers,

Ben

> Thanks in advance.
>
> HAL
>
>
> ----------
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