KR20080079632A - Remote authentication key assignment device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

A device and a method for assigning a remote license key are provided to control a copyright of software and centralize customer information management by generating remote software and hardware license keys on the network, and authenticating a user with the software and hardware license keys. A database(DB) stores installation information received from a client computer(C) when a CD(Compact Disk) is installed to the client computer. An authenticator checks a legal user based on the stored installation information, generates a remote license key for the legal user based on the predetermined number of users, and removes the installation information from the database when the legal user requests uninstalling the CD. The installation information includes at least one of unique information of the CD and unique hardware information of the client computer. A remote license system(S) includes an authentication key generator, which creates a user authentication key by comparing the user information from the client computer with the user information of the database and encodes the authentication key, and an interface key which connects the license system to a network.

Description

Remote authentication key assignment device and method {REMOTE LICENSE KEY SHARE APPARATUS AND METHOD}

The present invention relates to a remote authentication key assignment apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a remote authentication key assignment apparatus and method for centralizing software user authority control and customer information management through a network.

In general, computers that are essential to homes and businesses are becoming multimedia to be used in various ways by connecting audio and video devices as well as simple document editing functions and communication functions such as the Internet.

In order to use the computer as described above, various programs such as an operating system, a document, and a communication utility for operating the computer must be installed in a hard disk drive.

In other words, computer users have to pay for proper programs among various programs that require a lot of time, manpower, and enormous cost to develop programs, and install them on the hard disk drive of the computer.

However, most computer users don't buy genuine products at the proper cost because they think that programs that take a lot of time and money are too expensive, or that they do not have to buy and use genuine products. It is a very frequent situation to buy and use a product that is illegally copied without use.

In order to prevent illegal copying of the software, encryption technology and smart card (IC card) are combined to prevent software piracy.

In the software piracy prevention technique, a serial number for determining whether or not a user is provided by comparing an authentication key unique to a software CD with an authentication key provided in a software CD at the time of software installation is provided. There is a way.

That is, the serial number method is a method of requesting a specific serial number from the user at the time of installation of the software and comparing the serial number calculated by the software. In this case, since the serial number is included in the sale of the software, the software After the illegal copying, if only the serial number is known to the communication network or the Internet, there is a problem that can not prevent illegal copying.

In addition, there is a method of using a unique ID of the operating system or hardware, that is, a method of using a hardware is to generate an authentication key by reading an O / S or a hardware-specific serial number by embedding an authentication key generator in an installation program. The key can only be operated on the system where the software is installed.

In addition, when the user passes the O / S or hardware specific serial number to the software provider, the authentication key is generated and delivered.

In this case, there is a problem in that the authentication key must be given again whenever 0 / S is reinstalled or hardware is to be changed.

The user is limited to the user by checking whether the user has the same authentication key on the same network domain. The method of granting the authentication key compares the authentication key value of the certificate received at the time of software purchase with the authentication key stored in the CD to determine the user. The same software user in the network domain is examined to determine whether or not the software is installed compared to the number of authorized users who were given the purchase of the software.

In such a case, when used in another network domain, there is a problem that software can be installed and thus illegal copying can not be prevented.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and remote authentication allocation to centralize software control and customer information management by generating authentication keys of software and hardware through a network and authenticating users. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a network in which a plurality of clients are connected to a LAN or the Internet, and transmit and receive information, comprising: storage means for pre-store user information licensed for installation of a CD; And an authentication means for searching and comparing the user information output from the client with the user information of the storage means according to the installation request of the predetermined CD of the client, and generating an authentication key accordingly.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the client, a first step of requesting the CD installation or uninstallation by the user, over the network; A second step of verifying a user and generating an authentication key by the CD installation request; The authentication key is transmitted through a network, and a third process of installing a predetermined program using the authentication key is performed.

As described in detail above, in the authentication key granting method using the remote authentication key assignment apparatus of the present invention, the installation process of the user is directly associated with the user registration on the server, which is useful for customer management, and the authentication key previously used. Since it is not given to the user, it is difficult to reproduce it illegally, and the authentication key input is automatically made during the installation process, thereby providing convenience to the user.

In addition, even if the OS or hardware is changed, the authentication information is automatically generated and distributed by managing the usage information by the CD in the remote authentication system, so there is no need to reissue the authentication key. It is effective to perform efficient customer management and software management with information on install and uninstall.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings the operation and effects of the remote authentication key assignment apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described in detail.

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a remote authentication key assignment apparatus of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of clients connected to the authentication server S through the Internet and require installation of predetermined software are shown in FIG. (C); A user database (DB) which pre-stores user information permitted to install CDs; When an installation request is input from the plurality of clients (C) to which CDs are embedded, the user information output from the client is compared with the user information of the user database (DB), and the authentication key accordingly It consists of an authentication server (S) for generating the operation of the present invention configured as described above.

First, in the case where the user wants to install the software of the CD, the client C inputs user information by the installation utility, and then the installation utility uses O / S (Operation / System) or hardware (H / W). The unique serial number, user information and CD unique number are read and transmitted to the authentication server (S) through the Internet.

Then, the authentication server (S) checks the use of the same CD and the number of simultaneous users with the CD unique number which is the authentication key of the CD, and if it is an illegal user, delivers an error message to the corresponding client (C) to stop the installation, If an authorized user generates an authentication key by combining a CD unique number, O / S or H / W serial number, user information, and a random key value for determining that the authentication key is issued by the authentication server (S) The authentication key is transmitted to the client C.

As shown in FIG. 2, the authentication server S compares user information output from the client C with user information of the user database DB and generates a user authentication key according to the comparison result. And an authentication key generator for encrypting and outputting the encrypted key, and an interface unit connected to a network to transmit the authentication key generated by the authentication key generator to the corresponding client (C).

3 is a schematic diagram showing a process of generating an authentication key in the authentication key generator, which reads an OS serial number, a H / W serial number, a CD unique number, and user information, and compares it with stored information of a user database (DB). After that, if it matches, an authentication key is generated, which is output after being encrypted after being combined with a random key for determining that the authentication key is issued by the authentication server (S).

Here, after determining that the transmitted authentication key is issued by the authentication server (S), the client (C) decrypts the authentication key by a program previously shared with the authentication server (S), and the decrypted authentication. The key is stored as a file that is not visible to the general user, and the authentication key file is used when uninstalling, that is, the installation utility in the software CD reads the authentication key file to confirm that the software is being used for installation, and then prints the authentication key value on the network. The authentication server S deletes the user information registered in the user database DB, and then transmits the successful message to the client C to uninstall. Do this.

In more detail, the operation of the present invention will be described with reference to Fig. 4, first, a user is requested to install or uninstall a CD in which a predetermined program is embedded through the network from the client C.

If the CD installation request is generated by the user, the authentication server S verifies the user and generates an authentication key.

That is, the authentication server S verifies the user with the user information, the CD unique information, and the hardware unique serial information from the client C. If the legitimate user and the number of users are within the set number, the authentication server S registers the user information, and then authenticates the authentication key. Create

Then, the client C receives the authentication key via a network, demodulates the CD to be installed by a program previously shared with the authentication server S, and installs a predetermined program using the authentication key. .

On the other hand, if the user is a legitimate user, but exceeds the predetermined number of users, and generates an error message and transmits it to the client (C).

When the uninstall is selected by the user, after removing the user information from the user database DB, an uninstall message is generated and transmitted to the client C. Then, the client C removes the authentication key file. .

5 is a schematic view showing a table of a user database (DB) for storing user information and authentication related data, including a CD authentication table storing an ID, a CD unique number key, and a user number; A user authentication table for storing a user number, a CD number, a user name, a host name, an OS serial number, a H / W serial number, and whether there is an installation; It consists of a key table for storing ID, user number, authentication key and date.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another embodiment of the remote authentication assignment method of the present invention. When applied to a remote service using a CD title, FIG. 6 is connected to an authentication server (S) located at a remote location using a CD title. After determining the authenticity of the title, it is determined whether the remote service is in progress with the same CD title, and if the authenticated user passes the user authentication key to the system to receive the remote service, the remote service can be received.

That is, when a remote service connection request is made using the CD title, the authentication server S performs user verification, and generates a user authentication key if the user is an authorized user.

In other words, the authentication server (S) determines whether it is an authorized user, transmits a denial of service message if it is not an authorized user, and if it is an authorized user, determines whether it is a duplicate user, and transmits a denial of service message if it is a duplicate user, If the user is not a duplicate user, an authentication key is generated and connected to the corresponding client (C). Thus, the remote service is performed by accessing the client from the remote service server using the user authentication key.

At this time, when the user authentication key is generated, the user information is stored in the user database (DB).

Here, the data flow and communication method of the authentication server S will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

First, the user information is transmitted from the host of the client C to the sock using TCP or UDP from the host to the authentication server S through the network, and the OS receives the data received from the client C into the memory. The authentication key generator then uses that data.

The authentication key generator delivers user information to a user database (DB) in order to determine whether a user to which the authentication key is to be registered is registered.

Then, after searching the user from the data table stored in the disk, the user database DB transmits the search result to the authentication key generator, and delivers the registered user information.

The authentication key generator encrypts the user authentication key and transmits the user authentication key to the client C through the network interface using TCP or UDP.

Specific embodiments or examples made in the detailed description of the invention are intended to clarify the technical details of the present invention to the extent that they should not be construed as limited to these specific embodiments and should not be construed in consultation. Various changes can be made within the scope of.

1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the present invention remote authentication key assignment apparatus.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the authentication server in Figure 1;

3 is a schematic diagram showing a process of generating an authentication key in the authentication key generator in FIG.

Figure 4 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the present invention for the remote authentication key assignment method.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an internal configuration of the user database in Fig. 1;

Figure 6 is a flow chart of another embodiment of the present invention remote authentication key assignment method.

7 is a block diagram showing the data flow of the authentication server in FIG.

***** Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *****

C: Client S: Authentication Server

DB: user database

Claims (9)

Storage means for pre-saving installation information for which installation of the CD is permitted; When requesting installation of the CD from a client computer, authentication is performed based on the installation information output from the client computer and the installation information pre-stored in the storage means, and the user authentication key is generated based on a predetermined number of users. Remote authentication key assignment apparatus, characterized in that it comprises a means. Storage means for storing installation information output from the client computer when the CD is requested for installation; And an authentication means for removing installation information stored in the storage means at the time of installation when requesting the CD to uninstall from the client computer. Storage means for storing installation information output from the client computer when a CD is installed from the client computer; And an authentication means for identifying a legitimate user based on the stored installation information, generating a user authentication key based on a preset number of users, and removing installation information stored in the storage means when the CD is uninstalled. Long range authentication key assignment apparatus, characterized in that. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the installation information, And at least one of unique information of the CD and hardware unique information of the client computer. Receiving a request for installation of a CD through a network from a client computer; Verifying a legitimate user based on installation information of the CD output from the client computer; And If the legitimate user, as a result of the verification, remote authentication key allocation method comprising the step of generating and transmitting a user authentication key. Receiving a request to uninstall the CD from the client computer via a network; And And removing the previously stored installation information of the client computer when the CD uninstall request is generated. Receiving a request for installation or uninstallation of a CD in which a predetermined program is stored through a network from a client computer; Verifying a legitimate user based on installation information output from the client computer, and generating and transmitting a user authentication key when requesting installation of the CD; And And removing the previously stored installation information of the client computer when the CD is requested to be uninstalled. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the installation information, And at least one of unique information of the CD and hardware unique information of the client computer. The method of claim 5 or 7, wherein the verification and authentication key generation step, Comparing installation information of the CD with installation information stored in advance; Comparing the number of pre-authenticated users with a preset number of users if the user according to the installation information is a legitimate user as a result of the comparison; Generating and transmitting a user authentication key to the client computer when the number of previously authenticated users is within a preset number of users as a result of the comparison of the number of users; And And installing a program stored in the CD in the client computer based on the user authentication key.

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