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Text File | 1991-03-20 | 11.7 KB | 256 lines

_______ / \ LockIt / \ version 1.30 | |--------------------- ________________ \ / | | \_______/ | | by Matthew Bloch with thanks to Piers Wombwell + Dick Alstein !!!! This program is SHAREWARE !!!! Please read the end of the file for conditions of usage What it does ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Basically, if you have software which should only be used on one computer, this program makes sure that the software stays there. If a computer is used by many people, there is always the risk of some people taking copies of this software. So LockIt will 'chain' a particular program to a specific computer by several different methods. How it works ~~~~~~~~~~~~ So how do we tell whether a piece of software is being run on the computer it should be running on? There are several ways of doing it; all of them invlove encoding the application to some extent, so it is *critical* that any program that you process with LockIt is not your only copy. Please do NOT alter original discs in any way. On the other hand, don't leave unencoded copies of the program lying around with the encoded ones. The program has actually evolved from there a bit, so read on - I've added some extra features here and there. Usage ~~~~~ There are two programs involved, LockIt and LockItPW. To use the program you must first choose which protection methods you want used which are described below. Then drag the application or file to the LockIt window. If you want to save over your original, just click OK on the save box, otherwise specify a new name and drag it to a directory display. Anyway, here are the protection methods used: - Software password This will only let the application run if the !LockItPW program is also present with the correct password entered into it. The idea being that the password in the LockItPW program and the encoded application should match. Note that any programs you encode in this way will only run when the LockItPW program is loaded. You can easily set this to run on startup. - CMOS password Again this program relies on the !LockItPW program to be loaded but this time the password is stored in the battery-backed RAM, not the !LockItPW program. This is more appropriate if the program is to be put on a network where one password can be put into every computer. - Ask for password Rather than having the password previously entered in CMOS RAM or in a software module, the program can ask the user for a password every time the program is run. This can get tedious, but might be more suitable for some purposes. - Configuration code This relies on certain parts of the machine staying constant such as the econet station number, memory size and operating system version. If the config code the application is encoded with do not match those within the machine the program will not run. See below for how to find out a particular machine's configuration code. - Machine ID This is the most secure method but only works on the more modern Acorn machines. Each Acorn computer comes now with a unique 'identity' chip with a value inside it which will be different for every computer. If you enter a machine's ID into this box, it can *only* be run on that machine. See below for how to find out a particular machine's ID. - Start working / stop working on a certain date You can encode programs so that they will only work after a certain date, before a certain date or between two dates. Tick whichever options you want and enter the appropriate dates in the boxes. - Squeeze file Not so much to stop piracy but preserve disc space. Using Acorns own 'Squeeze' program, it reduces the space taken up by the program on disc. Note that some applications will be already squashed; if so this will have no effect. - Process file several times This will feed the same program through several times which will make hacking harder. Note that some programs may not like being processed too many times with all the other measures as well. The best tactic is to encode it once with all the normal measures that you want then turn them all off and re-process it as many times as you want. This usually works well. Since two methods rely on parts of the machine not directly accessable to the user, two buttons are provided in the program to read the machine's ID or configuration code. Click on either to enter that machine's values into the boxes. To find out today's date, you can click in the 'Read date' box. If you save over your original file, the program will warn you and give you the option to cancel this. If you want to disable this warning, you can alter a line in the !Run file inside the application to -warnings off. If you're not sure how to do this, contact me for help! Also note that the passwords are CASE-SENSITIVE. This means that you must enter the same combination of capitals & small letters in both the !LockIt and !LockItPW programs. The CMOS password can be only 31 characters long. Spaces and quotes are not allowed in passwords. You can also save the settings for the next time you use LockIt. To stop automatic loading of these settings the next time, hold down ALT as you load the program. If any of the conditions aren't met when a protected program is run, such as passwords being incorrect or the program being out of date then the computer will give a nasty error, not always deliberately. This *might* crash the machine but only if the passwords/IDs are wrong rather than just missing. Using LockIt from the command line ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you want to use LockIt in part of a compilation process for example, it can be invoked without going through the WIMP front-end: Run <LockIt$Dir>.LockIt -in -out -softpw -cmospw -inputpw -machid -config -from -to Fill in the correct filename/password/id/date in the appropriate spaces. All of these switches are optional except -in which must be specified exactly as written with an input filename. If no output filename is given, the input file is overwritten. The dates following -from and -to should be in the form ddmmyy (example 271179 = 27th November 1979). Note that due to programming difficulties, you must always specify the -in switch. All other switches can be left out and implied by the order you put them in. LockItPW ~~~~~~~~ This program sets the passwords on the machine either in the CMOS RAM or in a module which can be loaded on startup. To alter the passwords, load the program while holding down ALT. It will ask you for new software and hardware passwords which will be made effective immediately. From then on, any programs loaded with these passwords set can work properly. The CMOS password will remain on that machine until changed. The software password can be loaded again from a boot sequence by just running !LockItPW normally. Hacking it ... can it be done? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The answer is of course yes. Any protection system at all can be foiled by a determined hacker with a bit of time on his hands. The hope is that this protection is sufficiently elaborate to put off most from hacking it. Also there is no programmer's 'back door' into programs protected with LockIt - honest! This means that the password is not stored anywhere within any protected programs. Also the date protection is of course useless if people turn back the clock in their computer to run a protected program. The best way to protect your programs is to encode them once in the normal manner, then run them through with all options deselected except the 'process file x times' option. Set this to about 30 to make any hacker's life difficult. I'm not supplying the source code to this program for obvious reasons; if you have any questions about the way it is written, then ask me, don't hack! Future improvements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The innovative design feature of this program is that it is written in a completely un-modular fashion. This means that if any extra modules need to be added on, it is virtually impossible to pick through all the lines of spaghetti ARM-code. However, here is a list of some things I might try to do in order of priority: --- The file encoding routines need speeding up a lot. They're written in ABC compiled BASIC at the moment; large files can take ages. --- LockItPW really needs to be smartened up a bit; a proper window wouldn't go amiss but maybe it's just overkill. I'll do it one day. Likewise password prompting. --- I might try to write a disc-protection system whereby discs are specially formatted so that they cannot be copied and applications will only run if this disc is present. I'll put this as a higher priority if anyone is interested. Conditions of usage - PLEASE READ THIS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This program is SHAREWARE. This term means that the software is not free and should be payed for if you find it useful. Please recognise the fact that this program was not just knocked up over a week-end. The rule is that if you are going to use this program to protect any software then you should send £5 to the address below. I am quite keen that schools and colleges register their usage of this program. You may however copy this unregistered version around to anyone you like providing that every file is included unchanged. The copyright remains mine at all times. This does not apply to people who just want to use it to squeeze their own programs or convert their BASIC programs to absolute code since I didn't write either 'squeeze' or 'Bas2App'. Incidentally if you do register, you will be entitled to updates to the software on receipt of a disc and postage costs. I'll also write your name in the info box. Please do remember, registering is not just to get rid of the annoying shareware box but to support a struggling programmer who currently needs a new hard drive. Version history ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you've got an earlier version of LockIt, here's a history to show you what has been added over the months. Versions 1.10 and 1.24 are decidedly dodgy (in fact they barely work at all) due to no testing; sorry! 1.00 Original release 1.10 A few cosmetic changes made, suggested by Cy Booker Interactive help put in 1.11 Bloody program didn't work in v1.10 due to no testing. Ooops 1.20 Time-lock features added Protection system improved 1.21 Minor bug fixed Help file formatted to 77 columns for easy printing 1.22 Icons made to look prettier on RISC PC Save options bug fixed 1.23 MakeApp2 supplied (temporarily) with this release 1.24 Bas2App included and BASIC files are now processed 'transparently' Fixed little bug concerning source/destination file size 1.30 Added password prompting Fixed bug in 1.24 which only process BASIC files :-O Silly me Put in a 'proper' save box and facility for NOT overwriting original Squashing is now done from WIMP front-end Tidied up program a bit Thanks to... ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thanks to Piers for helping me with the time-lock bit - I wouldn't know anything about BCD if it wasn't for him. He also pointed out the fact that v1.20 corrupted the last 4 bytes of each file. Whoops. Also, thanks very much to Dick Alstein for writing and giving me permission to use Bas2App with LockIt. I should also accredit Acorn for writing the 'squash' program; I don't have any qualms about distributing it since it is supplied with every copy of RISC OS anyway, i.e. every Archi user will have it on their Support Disc. Contacting me ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can write or email me, especially if you want to register! Please report any bugs or problems that you have with the program to me. Also if you have problems using any aspect of this program or if you can suggest some improvements; I'll be only too happy to write them in. Matthew Bloch, Internet: MBloch@arcade.demon.co.uk 5 Brookside, Arcade BBS: user #1644 (quicker than Internet) Headington, Oxford, OX3 7PJ. Bye, ..Matthew..