Controlling who can run an executable

[Michael Ekstrand]

On Tuesday 04 October 2005 01:43, Svennglenn wrote:
> Have the program check for a file hidden somewhere on the computer.
> For instance, if the file dummyfile.dll doesn't exist in the
> windows/system32 folder the program just doesn't start. And when you
> install the program on her computer just add this file. And if anyone
> copies the program the can't run it on any other computer because
> they doesn't know the name of the file that's needed to start the
> program.
>
> How about that?

But wouldn't the file name need to be stored in the program somewhere? 
as a string which can be discovered using relatively trivial processes?

That makes any protection difficult.

Being totally not a cryptographic expert... the solution I'd see would 
be an installer that encrypts the Python package (zip file?) with some 
hardware-specific key, and then decrypts it before running it (runner 
would need to be in C or something). Or maybe just embeds in itself a 
crypographic signature using a hardware key that is verified before the 
program can run.

-Michael