perfection in software protection
WhitePaper
White Paper
®
CodeMeter SmartBind
– the revolutionary Activation Scheme
Easy and secure binding of licenses to a
Flexible feature generation
High system reliability
Top security preventing manipulation
Dynamic weighting of binding features
computer
®
CodeMeter SmartBind
SmartBind ® describes the new concept to
bind licenses, i.e. digital rights, to a comput-
er or other specific device. SmartBind ® has
been developed by Wibu-System and is pat-
ent pending. Binding stands for activation.
The challenge is to choose binding features
which uniquely identify the computer
while, at the same time, tolerating minor
changes to the computer, thus ensuring
high license reliability for the user.
How does it work?
Imagine you are to identify a person. Imagine further
that you cannot use fingerprints since the person wears
gloves or you have no fingerprint scanner at hand. In
this case, you would fall back on visible features: facial
form, size, weight, gender, hair color, hair length, nose
width and length, shape and strength of eye-glasses,
beard color and shape, etc.. If you recognize enough
features then you conclude: “Yes, that’s him.“
When there is only a short interval between the first
and the next time you meet the person, most of the
features will be unchanged. However, if this interval
is longer, then some features may have changed more
or less. And the features are of different quality. It is
rather unlikely that the gender changes although pos-
sible thanks to modern surgery. Some change their
hair color like they change shirts while others keep the
original color throughout their lives. For adults, size
is a good first exclusion criterion, while with children
and teens this naturally changes.
Until meeting again with the statement “Gee, isn‘t
that John Doe“, numerous complex processes take
place in the human brain. Features are compared
and carefully considered before the final “yes” or
“no” decision is made.
Carrying the Passport Photo
What does this has to do with CodeMeter Smart-
Bind ® ? Nature itself has been the model case for
CodeMeter SmartBind ® . CodeMeter SmartBind ®
mathematically maps the complex recognition
processes. When a license is bound to a computer,
CodeMeter SmartBind ® creates the fingerprint of
the computer, the so-called a cryptographic key, and
a list of all features found. This list is – analog to
a photo in the passport – stored on the computer.
That is, the license always carries its own passport
photo.
The passport photo is used to identify the license.
All current features are matched to those on the
photo. New features, glasses in the human exam-
ple, a UMTS card in the case of the computer, are
negligible and do not become part of the algorithm.
In contrast, in the case of classical binding, a new
network card would falsify the value of the MAC
address/es. Not so with CodeMeter SmartBind ® .
New features are not a source of error.
www.wibu.com