Software License Management

• US 20110167498A1
• Filed: 12/26/2007
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kelce S. Wilson
• Original Assignee: Kelce S. Wilson
• Inventors: Wilson, Kelce S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,751 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1056 Updating check bits on partial write, i.e. read/modify/write
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/125 by manipulating the program code, e.g. source code, compiled code, interpreted code, machine code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1085 RMW, i.e. Read-Modify-Write method for RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2143 Clearing memory, e.g. to prevent the data from being stolen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30181 Instruction operation extension or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3812 with instruction modification, e.g. store into instruction stream

Abstract

A method of managing a software license comprises loading a software program into volatile memory, obtaining authorization data, modifying a portion of the volatile memory relied upon by the program in accordance with the authorization data, executing the program, and causing the modifications to be deleted from the volatile memory. In some embodiments, selection criteria compared with the authorization data does not contain information corresponding to all of the content of the authorization data, thereby denying a software attacker the benefit of identifying and exploiting the selection criteria.

Claims

1. A method of managing a software license, the method comprising:

loading a software program into volatile memory;

obtaining a plurality of authorization data candidates;

selecting authorization data from the plurality of authorization data candidates, wherein selecting the authorization data from the plurality of authorization data candidates comprises comparing the plurality of authorization data candidates with a selection criteria that does not contain information corresponding to all of the compared information within the authorization data;

modifying a portion of the volatile memory relied upon by the program in accordance with the selected authorization data;

executing the program; and

causing the modifications to be deleted from the volatile memory.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the authorization data comprises information indicating a location of the portion of volatile memory to be modified.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the authorization data comprises information indicating a manner of making the modifications.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying a portion of the volatile memory comprises replacing a first byte with a second byte.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying a portion of the volatile memory comprises changing the program from a first operable state to a second operable state.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein changing the program from a first operable state to a second operable state comprises improving the capability of the program.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein executing the program comprises launching the program with a launcher.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

decrypting the program prior to the modifying.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the authorization data from a plurality of authorization data candidates further comprises comparing the plurality of authorization data candidates with a plurality of selection criteria.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a difference between the authorization data and a selection criteria, wherein modifying a portion of the volatile memory relied upon by the program in accordance with the authorization data comprises modifying a portion of the volatile memory relied upon by the program in accordance with the identified difference.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting a byte of an initial software program, wherein the selected byte comprises at least one selected from the list consisting of;

a control flow instruction, data used in control flow, and data used in a calculation; and

changing the byte from a first value to a second value, such that the modification changes a corresponding byte in volatile memory from the second value to the first value.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating an authorization pair comprising the authorization data and selection criteria, wherein the selection criteria does not contain information corresponding to all of the content of the authorization data.

9-10. -10. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

16-17. -17. (canceled)