Penetration Testing: RE: How secure are dongles for copy-protection?

["Jonah Kowall" <jkowall () psteering com>]

Although they are quite secure, many hackers can easily make dongle
emulators for various packages (or crack out the dongle checks
themselves).  Some skill is required, but many crackers acqure the
development kit, which allows the debugging and reverse engineer of any
commercially availible dongle package.  


        -----Original Message----- 
        From: Harold Thimm 
        Sent: Mon 6/4/2001 3:43 PM 
        To: pen-test () securityfocus com 
        Cc: 
        Subject: How secure are dongles for copy-protection?
        
        
        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?) 
         
        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.)
         
        Thanks in advance.
         
        HAL

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