Software Licensing with Mobile Devices and in Virtual Environments

The CRYPTO-BOX® provides strong hardware based software licensing surpassing pure software based solutions. However, with some mobile devices, e.g. tablets or in virtual machines, some feasibility issues with the hardware of the CRYPTO-BOX® can arise.

How can you bypass those?

Considering the smaller CRYPTO-BOX USB-C is one option. The slim casing  has extremely compact dimensions, and is only a small add-on to mobile devices.

Particularly in virtualized environments, there is often no direct access to the USB port of the target system, or no USB slot available at all. Here are some helpful suggestions for such issues:

1. USB Device Server

USB Device Servers provide USB ports via network. This allows the usage of the CRYPTO-BOX with every remote computer connected to this network -  just like a real plug-in to a local USB port.

MARX recommends the myUTN USB Device Server products from SEH. Click here for more details and purchase information.*

2. Network Mode

An alternative solution is using the CRYPTO-BOX in network mode. The CRYPTO-BOX can be plugged to any computer in the local network which runs the CRYPTO-BOX Server application (CBIOS Network Server). The server supports Windows, Linux or macOS systems, including mini computers such as the Raspberry Pi.

The protected application running on the mobile device or on the virtual machine will access the CRYPTO-BOX via TCP protocol. The License Control System allows to specify how often the protected application can run in the network - only one CRYPTO-BOX is required.
The network mode is supported by our automatic protection solution AutoCrypt as well as via implementation with API. Sample code for all common compilers is available in the Professional Protection Kit (PPK). Have a look at the 'Network licensing' White Paper for more details. Network licensing and using the USB Device Server can be even combined.

Please contact us if you have any further questions on the CRYPTO-BOX usage.