FOAK: An interesting little challenge

Right, here's a challenge for anyone who feels like a puzzle over the
break.

My company bought some software in about 1985, which runs on SCO Unix.
We've just discovered that the licence file expires at the end of this
year.

Predictably, the company we bought the software from has disappeared (to
the point that Google can't find any reference to them at all).

The licence file contains our company name and 13 three-digit number
(which *look* like they're Octal). These seem to be generated from the
company name and (presumably!) the expiration date.

It would be handy for us to be able to continue to use this software.
It's not the end of the world if we can't, but it would be handy. So
ideally, we'd change the expiration date (after all, we bought a
perpetual licence. We assume the company set the expiration date to "so
far in the future it'll never matter").

Anyone have experience of such schemes? I don't want to publish the file
here (it has my employer's name in it), but I'm happy to email a copy to
interested parties.

 

Oooh. Nasty. These schemes are really on based on the whim du jour of
the person who wrote it or which fascinating article he read in Dr Dobb's
Journal the month previously.

Email it to me anyway and I'll piss about with some bit shifting and
xoring.

 

Just a thought, but if you have any names on paperwork associated with
the software, it might be worth Googling for them....

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, "TOG@Toil"

A good thought, but this goes back so far that paperwork is probably
non-existent.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, prawn

That's what I feared.

I shall, thank 'ee. There's a bottle of something or other on offer to
the first one to crack it.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Champ

We have.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, eric the brave

Not really an option in this case, I'm afraid.

 

On some primitive licence file 'expiry' schemes 'touch' can be useful.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique,

Thank'ee Kind Sir.

 

Send me a copy on Cdr or similar. I won't be able to help crack the
problem but I need a new mug coaster in the office.

--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

You have 2 options :-
1) Set the system clock back by 20 years and tolerate the incorrect dates.
2) Stop being tight and get some modern software.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, crn1

Well "up" to your usual standard, I see.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Lozzo

<G>

 

New, improved version 1.0.....

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Run it in a Virtual machine with alternative dates?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Hog

No, it's actually a menu system, and among the things it launches are
several accounts programs.

It's not the end of the world, they can use the command-line. The
overall system's end-of-life anyway, but I'd like to keep a couple of
guys running if we can while we get them upgraded to a supported
release.

 

Can't help with that, but I had a similar situation at work the other
day. We wrote some software to manage advertisement bookings for an
English Magazine And Publishing company that some around here are
familiar with about 15 years ago. One of the database tables was
pre-populated with years against which to book adverts. Got a bug
report in against the support contract "We can't book any adverts for
next year, it only goes up to 2010".

"And you didn't think to mention this any earlier than December 2010?"

I guess we didn't think we'd be support it in 15 years time... To be
on the safe side, I took it up to 2030. Let's see if that's enough.

 

Presumably someone with the incentive to do so could simply decompile,
and shove a goto around the date checking code, in a circa 1990's
software piracy style, rather than trying to guess at unjumbling the
licence key.

 

From a POV of deploying to a production (potentially mission critical)
system, I'd rather fix the licence....

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
#www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

No sense of adventure.