Radium License Manager

How does it work?

Radium can be deployed as a separate hardware module or as a standalone application.

Here is the process (simplified) in which Radium is used to protect software applications:

• In your application, add a call to the Radium authorisation function, Radium(). This is a function with 'C' linkage, so any programming language that can call C functions may be used. Add the radium library to your static link library list and compile and link your software.
• When you are ready to ship your product, you use the radium application to 'lock' your own application. The application is now fingerprinted and protected and will not run without a valid license.
• Your customer receives (or downloads) your software. When they run it for the first time, they are advised that they require a license. Of course, you could ship a license with the product to avoid this step. The customer contacts your organisation (directly, or online) and acquires a license from you. This license is delivered to the customer, direct via email or you can ship it via other means.
• You issue licenses to your application using a browser based application shipped with Radium. License issuing may also be done via the command line, say from a script or cgi program. The license issuer application has the ability to email the license directly to the customer, with all your own organisation details and instructions on how to install.
• The customer places the license file (attached to an email) in the same directory as your application, and may then execute the application.

Radium is written in C for speed and platform portability and adds about 80K (unix, 120K windows) to your binary. You can lock applications and issue licenses for any of the supported platforms from the one computer, as the radium locking tool and issuer are also cross platform.

Key Benefits

• PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) licenses

The license management system is built using PKI primitives. 512 bit RSA keys are used to validate licenses and validate executables. SHA-1 hashing is used to verify fingerprints and 192 bit triple-des is added to safeguard the binary and keys. These techniques make it very difficult to defeat the license mechanism even with reverse compilation techniques.

Only the license issuer is able to issue keys for their application, and license issuers are certified by us only. The issuing of licenses can only be done by supplying a pass-phrase, and for extra security we license the license issuer to only run on a designated machine.

• Flexible license types

A Radium customer can issue several types of license:

• Host locked licenses allow your application to be run only on a host the customer designates when they apply for a license.
• Time limited licenses will operate for a number of days from license application. The length of the time trial is set by the license issuer when they issue the license.
• Floating licenses which are not restricted in terms of time or host can also be issued.

The license system is also extendable via the use of a third party vendor code. This is useful for customers who ship hardware with their software. The vendor code is locked into the license, and must match the hardware serial code in order to execute.

Other uses of the vendor code include turning on/off different modules within your application (eg. optional plugins) or licensing your software based on number of CPUs in the customers' machines.

A vendor version identifer may also be tied to a license where you only want to issue a license for a certain version (or hardware platform) of your software. The version identifier in the license must match the version identifier in the binary in order to function.

• Cross platform support

Radium is portable across Windows and Unix variants. Applications from any supported platform may be locked from any other platform, and the license issuer itself is also cross platform. You have the freedom to use the software on any platform we support.

• Binary fingerprinting

When an executable is locked, a binary fingerprint is taken and stored in the binary itself, along with the license issuer's credentials in encrypted form. When the application runs, it checks that its own fingerprint is valid before continuing, thus if someone attempts to modify the binary in any way, the application is locked up and unusable.

Time trial licenses also include a clock tamper mechanism, where if someone turns back the clock on their system to attempt extend a time limited license, then the binary is again deactivated and rendered useless.

• License issue audit trail

All licenses issued via the radium issuer are logged into an audit database, in the event of customers losing their license details, or if someone tries to reissue a license.

• Web friendly management

The issuing of licenses may be done interactively via the supplied browser issuer daemon. Alternatively, licenses may be issued via a command line interface which is useful for wrapping up automated license issuing from your own cgi based web services.

The issuer has the option to automatically email a license to your customer directly as soon as it is issued. The email contains details of your organisation, the product and version being licensed, customer details, and attached to the email (as a MIME attachment) the license file itself.

These features enable you to issue licenses straight away with an 'out of the box' turnkey solution, while providing the flexibility to customise if you wish.

Pilot and partner program

We are always looking to establish reference sites and construct relationships with suitable sales partners. If your organisation is interested in participating in running a Radium pilot site, we would be happy to talk to you and provide a custom installation to you at a significantly reduced cost. In return we would benefit from beng able to refer potential customers to live reference sites.

We are also keen to make contact with consultancy firms or distributors who would be interested in promoting Radium to their own customers. If any of the above applies, please get in touch with us via the contact page.

System Requirements

Radium Hardware Engine

Supplied in an industrial strength 1RU rack mountable computer, pre-installed with Radium, this option would suit organisations who wish to seggregate their architecture into 'black boxes' and who want a 'plug and play' solution.

Radium Software

Suited to customers running their own hardware platforms who are comfortable in installing and maintaining their own platforms. The software only version is installed on the customer's own hardware.

Minimum System Requirements

• Supported operating system: Win32, Linux x86, Solaris x86, Solaris SPARC, HP-UX PA-RISC, Mac OS X (others available on request)
• Enough memory and CPU speed to run the chosen operating system. Radium has very low overhead, resource wise.
• Approx. 500Mb disk space for software (only 250K) and audit space (the rest)