Secure License Management for Small Devices: Innovative Approaches and Solutions

Machine builders or device manufacturers regularly face the challenge of wanting to license functionalities on small or very small devices. These classes of devices usually have limited computing power or memory, making the use of CodeMeter Runtime or CodeMeter Embedded not feasible. In such cases, our Professional Services team has developed concepts that were subsequently realized together with the customer as a project. Over the years, we have thus created a catalog of possible solutions that flow back into product development, and in this webinar, we will present a 'Best-Of' selection.

The motivation for such requests is often that the customer is already licensing other products with CodeMeter, and therefore the infrastructure, such as CodeMeter License Central and integration with their own back-office systems, is already in place. This creates a synergy effect, as existing processes can also be used for licensing other device classes, resulting in a company-wide unified solution.

On the devices themselves, it is usually the case that a custom license format is used, which may be secured with a signature or a checksum. Since these are often proprietary systems, in such projects, secure licensing is more important than protecting the application.

One way to meet these requirements is through the Custom Licensing Adapter. This is an extension for CodeMeter License Central, where the standard processes are used for license creation. However, when activating these licenses, a special customer-specific implementation is used, through which the custom license format is applied. This allows all the licensing models available in CodeMeter to be used, and the licensing options there are then applied to generate the proprietary license format.

Another way is to create a license in a CmDongle, which is then used on a customer system (personal computer) as a secure anchor for generating the license on the target device. This allows all cryptographic options of CodeMeter to be utilized, such as integrated signatures or special keys stored in a corresponding data field. For additional security, CodeMoving could even be used here, allowing particularly critical calculations to be protected and executed securely within the CmDongle.

Here is the agenda we are excited to walk you through:

• Presentation of typical use cases from customer projects
• Introduction to the functionality of the Custom Licensing Adapter
• Methods for using a CmDongle as a secure anchor
• Outlook: Ready-to-use standard solutions for small devices

Join this masterclass to learn how existing processes with CodeMeter License Central can be used to license small and very small devices where the use of CodeMeter Runtime or CodeMeter Embedded is not feasible.