Choosing a protector

Hi All,

I'm in the process of selecting a encryptor/protector to protect my company's software, and trying to figure out which is the best (professional versions of each, with all features turned on).

So far on the list to check out and compare are:
Armadillo - strippers,unpackers are around. trial count resetter exists. like the fact that digital river owns the company, since they're pretty solid.
ASProtect - strippers,unpackers are around. trial count resetter exists. like the fact that some of their anti-debug features have stumped me at times
Licenturion - relatively unknown, at least IMO. haven't seen much, if anything, about it on the unpacker forums i frequent.

Could someone who's an ace at unpacking all sorts of proggies suggest the best way to make this decision?

Thanks,
Steve

[kubik]

armadillo and asprotect easy targets for experienced crackers...
Licenturion... hmm, not heard about this protector...

Nice protector is SVKP.

again, another wrong way to think about protection. don't ask 'will this protector be better than another' cuz the truth of the matter is if the protector is interesting enough to catch someone's attention (along with your app) then it WILL be cracked, unpacked, whatever. try as you might, you are NOT gonna keep your app from the hands of and experienced reverser. that's just a fact.

what you should be looking at is the best balance of ease of implementation along with the best possible protection. in other words, think of your customers/potential customers. don't use a protection that slows down your app! if you used asprotect correctly and properly encrypted 'registered only' functions you'd be better off. and even then, if your app is desireable, chances are it will simply be subject to credit card fraud just to get all the locked up goodies.

again, cuz it seems that it can't be said enough, stop worrying about reversers, cuz you're not gonna stop them. think about how to make using your app an enjoyable experience for your customers.

bollygud, good points. I hope we all can avoid the "everything is crackable" discussion, since I am in complete agreement with that statement. The honest customer really is the only one who pays for the product, and so it really boils down to helping that honest customer comply with licensing.

I played around with Licenturion's demo app (a wrapped Tetris) and didn't find it too interesting. To get their SDK, I think it requires signing up.. but the unlock process for their demo app was simple enough. Their site says that they'll license the first 25k copies of one single application for free.

I installed Armadillo and found it to be pretty straightforward, although their 'network concurrent licenses' mode looks like an extremely bad implementation of other vendors' "floating licenses". I have not yet installed ASProtect, but expect it to be pretty much the same as Armadillo. That's next on my list.

SVKP... thanks for the suggestion, imagin. I'll look it up as well and give it a shot.

The tools cost pretty much the same. Is there anyone on the forum who's using any of these tools today for a legit purpose ( not to say that RE is not legit! ) who had to make the choice between them? If so, which did they choose and why?

Steve

[dyn!o]

stevematulis: you are losing your time here. The stuff you mentioned is all the same. I don't know Licenturion but I bet it posses the same idea as ASProtect/Armadillo clones.

You see, all of nowadays protectors uses outdated idea of:

- envelope
- "stolen bytes"
- API redirection
- silly anti-debug/dump/bla bla features

What about amazing polymorph/metamorph/hybrid encryption/virtual machines like features? Nothing. People using such naming usually don't know what it means and what is the difference between polymorph/metamorph/hybrid encryption/vm, etc.

Save your time and choose a random one. If your software is popular, it will be cracked.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by kubik

armadillo and asprotect easy targets for experienced crackers...
Licenturion... hmm, not heard about this protector...

Although it is somewhat true, not so easy with latest Armadilo custom build and nanomites.

I used few and personally liked Armadillo compared to others. However, their support is not that good. They have their own 'set priorities' irrespective of what their customer wants (even for smallest things), but thats the way they are

For many of my clients, What I typically do is to use secondary private protection in addition to any good third party protector. Although you definately want to spend time writing your application core than to write protection code, it will be worth the effort.

One thing for sure is that everything is crackable, one someone is determined to have it free and on the other hand there are plenty who will pay for it if software has good reputation.

Good luck

The Best protector this XtremeProtector .The Defect - he not much well works.

[infern0]

dyn!o
about virtual machines - there are vmprotect - free VM-based protector. Yo can find more in reng.ru/borad (russian). Also YOu can get it directly here: hxxp://www.polytech.ural.ru/files/vmprotect.exe

I think its not importent what protector you are taking. Its the features that makes your application unique. When your app is good enough, people will pay for it. No application is uncrackable. Every time when an application is cracked it means that your application is spread a little wider and more people are seeing it. I've seen some superb shareware software in my life, but no cracks for this. Most people don't know about them.
When the app is cool. Some people will pay for it. There will be everytime where some are not paying.

Change the checking for registration in your app regulary and add some randomizing to it.

Cheers, neogen

[dyn!o]

Inferno: �� �٧ߧѧ� ����� �ڧߧ����ާ֧ߧ� �� ������ reng.ru . dyn!o/dynio are not the only nicks I use.

Anyway, Dermatolog did an interesting job indeed. I am "monitoring" this tool but also am forced to wait for the next releases since all previous (including 0.97) crashes on my computer (interface problems, index out of bounds, etc.).

Regards.

[SystemeD]

Personally I think that the only thing that could not be cracked is the thing that isn't on the reverser hd.
So if possible in your case, you can try to release a demo version compiled without all the features and components of the full version and send the complete application only after payment (protected in some way, with info of the customer in it and linked to the demo version installed by the customer). Then you have to hope that all your customer are satisfied and honest and would not spread their full version...
Anyway it's true that there always will be persons that would use your app without paying for it so try to make a great app that could gain the respect of your customer.
Regards

[Michel]

Boys, don't we are a reversers's board ?
This discussion isn't interresting in anyways !
Stevematulis : look at this board with regularity, then you will be able to understand by yourself what is hard to crack, what is not, and do your own protection.
If you want a commercial one, choose it in some commercial catalog...

JMI, please, could you close this kind of thread ?

[dyn!o]

Michel: funny (?) post... thinking the same way I would say: "if you want knowledge, go to a bookstore".

With all respect to Stevematulis, I'm afraid that he isn't able to understand what we are talking about here and that's why he asked for help (theoretical suggestion). If not here then where he should?

Don't tell him to get lost but give some purchase advice. I will hear with interest too.

look at this board with regularity, then you will be able to understand by yourself what is hard to crack, what is not, and do your own protection.

I will not comment above quote because I am assuming that you were joking.

Regards.