Machine Thumbprint

[sesa237670_brid]

Hi Jeff,

I have a requirement to compare machine thumbprint of the local machine to thumbprint in the license file. This is to restrict customer from running our extension on any machine if they have the License Claim token but to run on specific ES machine.

Do SmartConnector have any API to generate Thumbprint? Or can you share the algorithm for the same?

Thanks!
Neeraj Tomar

[JeffBowman · Accepted solution]

Hi Neeraj,

I am not sure I follow this post completely, but I will try and give you an answer.

The machine thumbprint itself is generated based on the specific hardware configuration of the machine in question. Smart Connector does not allow custom Machine Thumbprints for a specific machine.

In the case where you want the customer to run the extension on a very specific machine. I would not recommend you giving them a claim token, but generate the license yourself from www.smartconnectorserver.com given the thumbprint on the machine that you either got yourself, or they gave to you. Then send them the license file.

When a license is generated with a Machine Thumbprint, the license file itself will show the 'Machine Thumprint', but this is just there for informational purposes. The actual license is the <Signature>.

Regards,

-Jeff

[sesa237670_brid]

Hi Jeff,

I will run this by Ellis. It might be acceptable to restrict customer from generating License from the smartconnector site.

I understand that machine thumbprint is generated based on the specific machine. I was wondering if you expose that API for the extensions. I mean smartconnector behind the scene would be generating machine thumbprint and comparing with the thumbprint in License file.

Thanks!

Neeraj Tomar

[JeffBowman]

Hi Neeraj,

Sorry for the slow reply on this!

As far as the thumbprint generation itself, you can actually override the generation method in the MachineThumprinter class GenerateThumbprint() method SxL.Licensing nuget package. However, doing this will not help you at all as the license validation in the SmartConnectorService itself uses the default methods, and this cannot be overridden. If we allow these to be overridden in the service, then it would be incredibly easy for someone to get all of their licenses for free.. as they could simply override this method to return true. Mark Stemmler​ please correct me if I am wrong .

Regards,

-Jeff

[sesa237670_brid]

I agree. We created 2 type of licenses for our project. Demo License which are time based and customer License based on machine thumbprint. As you have suggested, earlier to enforce software install on ES, we are generating license from the smartconnector server and issuing to the customer instead of them creating License for any machine.

Thanks!

Neeraj Tomar

[JeffBowman]

Hi Neeraj,

What you have done, is exactly what is recommended!

Regards,

-Jeff