Operation of the CRYPTO-BOX on USB 3.0 ports, new Smarx Compendium

Today's newsletter contains the latest updates on USB 3.0 compatibility and the link to download our updated CRYPTO-BOX compendium.

1. Update on USB 3.0 compatibility under Windows 8

We are currently focused and working on a solution regarding difficulties of CRYPTO-BOX operation on USB 3.0 ports, (computers equipped with chipsets of Intel 7 series). The CRYPTO-BOX is recognized but it will show error messages when querying. Affected are the CRYPTO-BOX models XS and Versa, the CRYPTO-BOX SC works perfectly on USB 3.0 ports.
This issue occurs only under Windows 7. Our tests on Windows 8 and Ubuntu Linux were successful. Windows 8 already comes with an USB driver for USB 3.0 controllers, which works fine with the CRYPTO-BOX.

Our analysis under Windows 7 shows that the USB 3.0 controller (resp. its driver) on the affected systems does not accurately respond to specific requests of the CRYPTO-BOX. We are in contact with the chipset and motherboard manufacturers and are working to resolve this issue. We will keep you up-to-date on this subject via our website and in our email newsletter.

For the affected systems there are possibilities of working around:

• a) Connect and operate the CRYPTO-BOX to a USB 2.0 port. Most motherboards have both types of connectors. You can recognize the USB 3.0 connections because the sockets are blue, USB 2.0 ports are usually black or white.
• b) Turn off the xHCI mode in your computers BIOS settings. By this, the USB 3.0 controller will throttle down from super-speed to high-speed (USB 2.0), in our tests it ran perfectly. Most motherboards allow to disable the xHCI mode in the BIOS selectively to individual USB 3.0 ports, so you can still use the other ports at full speed.

Your feedback on using motherboards and USB controllers is appreciated as it helps us to improve our support for you.
Please provide us with the following information, in this regard:

MARX Analyzer Report:

Download the MARX Analyzer on our website and perform the standard diagnostic. Save the report (.mdiag file) and send it to us via email.

Information about the computer you are using, especially:

• Motherboard manufacturer, model, serial number, hardware revision, and BIOS version
• Version number of the USB 3.0 driver, you will find it in the device manager under: USB controller -> USB 3.0 Host Controller -> right click -> Properties -> Driver

What are the symptoms:

• Is the CRYPTO-BOX partially recognized, or not at all?
• With which API commands or queries do the errors occur?

If applicable, please send us this information to [email protected]. For further questions or comments give us a call at (+49) 8403 9295-12 to personally speak to our support team.

2. New Smarx Compendium

The Smarx Compendium contains detailed documentation of all components of the CRYPTO-BOX Protection Kit.

The up-to-date version is availiable on our website. In addition to many small changes, the updated compendium contains detailed information on the new data object type "Binding to a local computer". This new data object allows the protected software to be additionally binded to a specific computer. For example, this can be beneficial if the use of the protected software outside the company is not desired. More details can be found in chapter 13.2. The current Protection Kit 5.80 contains libraries and sample codes for the usage of the "Binding to a local computer" data object with the DO API in C++ and C# under CBIOS4NET.