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I have to develop a plugin for a program that uses dongle to activate.Just wondering can i crack the key of the usb or something else?

Antonio Papa
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  • Have you considered a legitimate approach, such as contacting the manufacturer of the program and explaining that you are a plugin developer and finding out what kind of terms they might provide you a license? – lurker Jul 02 '13 at 20:26
  • the creator of the plugin that uses dongle is dead... so there is no update no contact nothing... – Antonio Papa Jul 02 '13 at 20:28
  • Ah. Sorry to hear that. – lurker Jul 02 '13 at 20:30

1 Answers1

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I'm sure you can, but you might be running afoul of the various legislation regarding the act of reverse engineering content protection systems. I am, of course, referring to the American DCMA statues.

In any event, as pure thought experiment, I might try the following:

  • Clone the USB firmware image, and load it into a virtual USB port
  • As you say, crack the key and the USB interface, and short-circuit the check in a virtual USB device.
  • Locate the part of the code in the program that is doing the security check, and edit the bytecode / machine code to return successful without actually looking for the device.

NOTE: Do not contact me for services related to defeating security systems. I won't do it, and I'll probably lecture you.

PaulProgrammer
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  • ok thank you hope to do that :)...why the users are voting down i dont understand? – Antonio Papa Jul 02 '13 at 20:32
  • Down votes are because the act of circumventing the copy protection is illegal. – PaulProgrammer Jul 02 '13 at 20:33
  • @PaulProgrammer Only if it says as much in the TOS. – arkon Feb 02 '15 at 00:12
  • @b1nary.atr0phy what would be the point of a security dongle if you would allow people to crack it? Anyway, better check your references. I'm not much of a lawyer, but [17 U.S. Code § 1201(a)(1)(A)](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201) states: No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. – PaulProgrammer Feb 04 '15 at 05:53
  • @PaulProgrammer No, you're certainly not a lawyer: In a nutshell, the DMCA makes it illegal to produce/share copyrighted works. It also makes it illegal to offer services/products designed to circumvent copyright protection. Which has nothing to do with the topic at hand. (We're specifically discussing TOS here.) If you're curious as to why a company would challenge people to break their security, refer yourself to [one of the many examples](https://tresorit.com/contest/hacking-challenge) which you can find online. – arkon Feb 14 '15 at 04:23