Activation Key
Here is a simple structure of the activation key:
<code>class ActivationKey
{
public byte[] Data { get; set; }
public byte[] Hash { get; set; }
public byte[] Tail { get; set; }
}
</code>
<p>This tool will use cryptographic transformations to generate the key.</p>
<h2>Generating</h2>
<p>The algorithm for obtaining a unique activation key for a data set consists of several steps:</p>
<ul>
<li>data collection,</li>
<li>getting the hash and data encryption,</li>
<li>converting activation key to string.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Data collection</h3>
<p>At this step, you need to get an array of data such as serial number, device ID, expiration date, etc. This purpose can be achieved using the following method:</p>
<pre class="lang-cs prettyprint-override"><code>unsafe byte[] Serialize(params object[] objects)
{
using (MemoryStream memory = new MemoryStream())
using (BinaryWriter writer = new BinaryWriter(memory))
{
foreach (object obj in objects)
{
if (obj == null) continue;
switch (obj)
{
case string str:
if (str.Length > 0)
writer.Write(str.ToCharArray());
continue;
case DateTime date:
writer.Write(date.Ticks);
continue;
case bool @bool:
writer.Write(@bool);
continue;
case short @short:
writer.Write(@short);
continue;
case ushort @ushort:
writer.Write(@ushort);
continue;
case int @int:
writer.Write(@int);
continue;
case uint @uint:
writer.Write(@uint);
continue;
case long @long:
writer.Write(@long);
continue;
case ulong @ulong:
writer.Write(@ulong);
continue;
case float @float:
writer.Write(@float);
continue;
case double @double:
writer.Write(@double);
continue;
case decimal @decimal:
writer.Write(@decimal);
continue;
case byte[] buffer:
if (buffer.Length > 0)
writer.Write(buffer);
continue;
case Array array:
if (array.Length > 0)
foreach (var a in array) writer.Write(Serialize(a));
continue;
case IConvertible conv:
writer.Write(conv.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
continue;
case IFormattable frm:
writer.Write(frm.ToString(null, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
continue;
case Stream stream:
stream.CopyTo(stream);
continue;
default:
try
{
int rawsize = Marshal.SizeOf(obj);
byte[] rawdata = new byte[rawsize];
GCHandle handle = GCHandle.Alloc(rawdata, GCHandleType.Pinned);
Marshal.StructureToPtr(obj, handle.AddrOfPinnedObject(), false);
writer.Write(rawdata);
handle.Free();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
}
continue;
}
}
writer.Flush();
byte[] bytes = memory.ToArray();
return bytes;
}
}
</code>
Getting the hash and data encryption
This step contains the following substeps:
- create an encryption engine using a password and stores the initialization vector in the Tail property.
- next step, expiration date and options are encrypted and the encrypted data is saved into the Data property.
- finally, the hashing engine calculates a hash based on the expiration date, password, options and environment and puts it in the Hash property.
ActivationKey Create<TAlg, THash>(DateTime expirationDate,
object password,
object options = null,
params object[] environment)
where TAlg : SymmetricAlgorithm
where THash : HashAlgorithm
{
ActivationKey activationKey = new ActivationKey();
using (SymmetricAlgorithm cryptoAlg = Activator.CreateInstance<TAlg>())
{
if (password == null)
{
password = new byte[0];
}
activationKey.Tail = cryptoAlg.IV;
using (DeriveBytes deriveBytes =
new PasswordDeriveBytes(Serialize(password), activationKey.Tail))
{
cryptoAlg.Key = deriveBytes.GetBytes(cryptoAlg.KeySize / 8);
}
expirationDate = expirationDate.Date;
long expirationDateStamp = expirationDate.ToBinary();
using (ICryptoTransform transform = cryptoAlg.CreateEncryptor())
{
byte[] data2 = Serialize(expirationDateStamp, options);
activationKey.Data = transform.TransformFinalBlock(data2, 0, data2.Length);
}
using (HashAlgorithm hashAlg = Activator.CreateInstance<THash>())
{
byte[] data = Serialize(expirationDateStamp,
cryptoAlg.Key,
options,
environment,
activationKey.Tail);
activationKey.Hash = hashAlg.ComputeHash(data);
}
}
return activationKey;
}
Converting to string
Use the ToString method to get a string containing the key text, ready to be transfering to the end user.
N-based encoding (where N is the base of the number system) was often used to convert binary data into a human-readable text. The most commonly used in activation key is base32. The advantage of this encoding is a large alphabet consisting of numbers and letters that case insensitive. The downside is that this encoding is not implemented in the .NET standard library and you should implement it yourself. There are many examples of base32 implementation on this site. You can also use the hex encoding and base64 built into mscorlib. In my example base32 is used.
string ToString(ActivationKey activationKey)
{
if (activationKey.Data == null
|| activationKey.Hash == null
|| activationKey.Tail == null)
{
return string.Empty;
}
using (Base32 base32 = new Base32())
{
return base32.Encode(Data) + "-" + base32.Encode(Hash) + "-" +
base32.Encode(Tail);
}
}
Checking
Key verification is carried out using methodes GetOptions an Verify.
- GetOptions checks the key and restores embeded data as byte array or null if key is not valid.
- Verify just checks the key.
byte[] GetOptions<TAlg, THash>(object password = null, params object[] environment)
where TAlg : SymmetricAlgorithm
where THash : HashAlgorithm
{
if (Data == null || Hash == null || Tail == null)
{
return null;
}
try
{
using (SymmetricAlgorithm cryptoAlg = Activator.CreateInstance<TAlg>())
{
cryptoAlg.IV = Tail;
using (DeriveBytes deriveBytes =
new PasswordDeriveBytes(Serialize(password), Tail))
{
cryptoAlg.Key = deriveBytes.GetBytes(cryptoAlg.KeySize / 8);
}
using (ICryptoTransform transform = cryptoAlg.CreateDecryptor())
{
byte[] data = transform.TransformFinalBlock(Data, 0, Data.Length);
int optionsLength = data.Length - 8;
if (optionsLength < 0)
{
return null;
}
byte[] options;
if (optionsLength > 0)
{
options = new byte[optionsLength];
Buffer.BlockCopy(data, 8, options, 0, optionsLength);
}
else
{
options = new byte[0];
}
long expirationDateStamp = BitConverter.ToInt64(data, 0);
DateTime expirationDate = DateTime.FromBinary(expirationDateStamp);
if (expirationDate < DateTime.Today)
{
return null;
}
using (HashAlgorithm hashAlg =
Activator.CreateInstance<THash>())
{
byte[] hash =
hashAlg.ComputeHash(
Serialize(expirationDateStamp,
cryptoAlg.Key,
options,
environment,
Tail));
return ByteArrayEquals(Hash, hash) ? options : null;
}
}
}
}
catch
{
return null;
}
}
bool Verify<TAlg, THash>(object password = null, params object[] environment)
where TAlg : SymmetricAlgorithm
where THash : HashAlgorithm
{
try
{
byte[] key = Serialize(password);
return Verify<TAlg, THash>(key, environment);
}
catch
{
return false;
}
}
Example
Here is a full example of generating the activation key using your own combination of any amount of data - text, strings, numbers, bytes, etc.
Example of usage:
string serialNumber = "0123456789";
const string appName = "myAppName";
ActivationKey activationKey = new ActivationKey(
DateTime.Now.AddMonths(1),
null,
null
appName, serialNumber
);
bool checkKey = activationKey.Verify((byte[])null, appName, serialNumber);
if (!checkKey)
{
MessageBox.Show("Your copy is not activated! Please get a valid activation key.");
Application.Exit();
}
GitHub - ng256/Activation-Key: Represents the activation key used to protect your C# application.[
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