SwyxWare license hardware coupling

Summary:

SwyxWare permanent licenses are coupled to the system on which SwyxWare is installed. This ensures that a license can be used for one installation only. This article describes how this coupling works.

Information:

During installation SwyxWare requires a product key to complete installation. This key is usually limited, i.e. remains valid for 30 days. During this period a permanent key has to be requested from Swyx via EMail. SwyxWare generates a request-file called "SoftwareLicenseRequest.slf" which contains the limited license keys and hash-values of certain system components. Using hash-values ensures that Swyx cannot deduce the exact components of the customer's PC. Swyx generates a permanent key from the request which contains these hash-values, too and sends it back to the customer. The key is cryptographically signed and encoded. SwyxWare checks the hash-values from the key against the calculated hash-values of the system and prevents installation of the key if there's a mismatch. 

The following system components are used: 

• Intel Prozessor serial number (if available) 
• Operating system serial number 
• Display controller Plug and Play ID 
• Network adapter MAC address 
• Disk drive Plug and Play ID 
• IDE controller Plug and Play ID 

This list is subject to change for future SwyxWare versions. 

If more than one of these components is changed (from SwyxWare v6.x, up to SwyxWare v5.x: if more than twocomponents are changed) the key becomes invalid. A grace period of 30 days allows requesting a new permanent key before the old one becomes unusable.