What code to write for a dongle attached system to provide better security?

Question

I have developed a software piece (with C and Python) which I want to protect with dongle so that copying and reverse engineering becomes hard enough. My dongle device comes wit

Answer 1

How to maximize protection with a simple dongle?

Use API together with Enveloper if an enveloper exists for your resulting file format. This is a very basic rule. Because our enveloper is already equipped with some anti-debugging and obfuscating methods to prevent common newbie hackers to give up hacking the program. Only using enveloper is also not recommended, because once a hacker can break the enveloper protection in other program, they can also break yours.

Call dongle APIs in a LOT of places in your application. For example when first start up, when opening a file, when a dialog box opens, and before processing any information. Also maybe do some random checking even when there's nothing done at all.

Use more than one function to protect a program. Do not just only use find function to look for a plugged dongle.

Use multiple dlls/libraries (if applicable) to call dongle functions. In case one dll is hacked, then there are still other parts of the software that uses the functions from another dll. For example, copying sdx.dll to print.dll, open.dll, and other names, then define the function calls from each dll with different names.

If you use a dll file to call dongle functions, bind it together with the executable. There are quite some programs capable of doing this; for example PEBundle. 3

I have got this article on PRLOG and found it quite useful on maximizing protection with a simple dongle. Maybe this link may help you

Maximizing Protection with a Simple Dongle for your Software

Answer 2

You may want to look into using Dinkey Dongles for your copy protection.

It seems a very secure system and the documentation gives you tips for improving your overall security using the system.

http://www.microcosm.co.uk/dongles.php