A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute . It is one component of software , which also includes documentation and other intangible components.
105-398: A product key , also known as a software key, serial key or activation key , is a specific software-based key for a computer program . It certifies that the copy of the program is original. Product keys consist of a series of numbers and/or letters. This sequence is typically entered by the user during the installation of computer software, and is then passed to a verification function in
210-408: A x ) + 1 {\displaystyle Hash=(Hash\%BitFieldMax)+1} . Where BitFieldMax is the maximal value that may be stored in the bit-field in question, e.g. 1023 for a 10-bit bit-field, and 'x % y' denotes the remainder of the division of x by y. This results in values between 1 and BitFieldMax. The obtained value is then stored in the respective bit-field. The bit-field related to
315-509: A compiler written for the language. ( Assembly language programs are translated using an assembler .) The resulting file is called an executable . Alternatively, source code may execute within an interpreter written for the language. If the executable is requested for execution, then the operating system loads it into memory and starts a process . The central processing unit will soon switch to this process so it can fetch, decode, and then execute each machine instruction. If
420-462: A list of integers could be called integer_list . In object-oriented jargon, abstract datatypes are called classes . However, a class is only a definition; no memory is allocated. When memory is allocated to a class and bound to an identifier , it is called an object . Object-oriented imperative languages developed by combining the need for classes and the need for safe functional programming . A function, in an object-oriented language,
525-422: A programming language . Programming language features exist to provide building blocks to be combined to express programming ideals. Ideally, a programming language should: The programming style of a programming language to provide these building blocks may be categorized into programming paradigms . For example, different paradigms may differentiate: Each of these programming styles has contributed to
630-672: A public key and a corresponding private key . Key pairs are generated with cryptographic algorithms based on mathematical problems termed one-way functions . Security of public-key cryptography depends on keeping the private key secret; the public key can be openly distributed without compromising security. There are many kinds of public-key cryptosystems, with different security goals, including digital signature , Diffie-Hellman key exchange , public-key key encapsulation , and public-key encryption. Public key algorithms are fundamental security primitives in modern cryptosystems , including applications and protocols that offer assurance of
735-428: A store which consisted of memory to hold 1,000 numbers of 50 decimal digits each. Numbers from the store were transferred to the mill for processing. The engine was programmed using two sets of perforated cards. One set directed the operation and the other set inputted the variables. However, the thousands of cogged wheels and gears never fully worked together. Ada Lovelace worked for Charles Babbage to create
840-464: A symmetric key , which is then used by symmetric-key cryptography to transmit data using the now-shared symmetric key for a symmetric key encryption algorithm. PGP , SSH , and the SSL/TLS family of schemes use this procedure; they are thus called hybrid cryptosystems . The initial asymmetric cryptography-based key exchange to share a server-generated symmetric key from the server to client has
945-639: A " brute-force key search attack ". However, such an attack is impractical if the amount of computation needed to succeed – termed the "work factor" by Claude Shannon – is out of reach of all potential attackers. In many cases, the work factor can be increased by simply choosing a longer key. But other algorithms may inherently have much lower work factors, making resistance to a brute-force attack (e.g., from longer keys) irrelevant. Some special and specific algorithms have been developed to aid in attacking some public key encryption algorithms; both RSA and ElGamal encryption have known attacks that are much faster than
1050-411: A " man-in-the-middle attack " is possible, making any subordinate certificate wholly insecure. Most of the available public-key encryption software does not conceal metadata in the message header, which might include the identities of the sender and recipient, the sending date, subject field, and the software they use etc. Rather, only the body of the message is concealed and can only be decrypted with
1155-610: A British cryptographer at the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), conceived of the possibility of "non-secret encryption", (now called public key cryptography), but could see no way to implement it. In 1973, his colleague Clifford Cocks implemented what has become known as the RSA encryption algorithm , giving a practical method of "non-secret encryption", and in 1974 another GCHQ mathematician and cryptographer, Malcolm J. Williamson , developed what
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#17328802205761260-604: A description of the Analytical Engine (1843). The description contained Note G which completely detailed a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers using the Analytical Engine. This note is recognized by some historians as the world's first computer program . In 1936, Alan Turing introduced the Universal Turing machine , a theoretical device that can model every computation. It is a finite-state machine that has an infinitely long read/write tape. The machine can move
1365-407: A document or communication. Further applications built on this foundation include: digital cash , password-authenticated key agreement , time-stamping services and non-repudiation protocols. Because asymmetric key algorithms are nearly always much more computationally intensive than symmetric ones, it is common to use a public/private asymmetric key-exchange algorithm to encrypt and exchange
1470-617: A fake key is used with an expansion pack, the server may ban legitimate keys from the original game. Similarly, with Valve's Steam service, all products the user has purchased are bound into the one account. If this account is banned, the user will lose access to every product associated with the same account. This "multi-ban" is highly controversial, since it bans users from products which they have legitimately purchased and used. Bans are enforced by servers immediately upon detection of cracks or cheats, usually without human intervention. Sometimes, legitimate users are wrongly deemed in violation of
1575-432: A function that returns the first eight bytes of an SHA-1 message digest. Then one round of decryption looks as follows. L' = R ^ First-8(SHA-1(L + Key)) R' = L The result of the decryption is 16 bytes of plaintext, which are together with the 17th unencrypted byte which will be interpreted as four double words in little endian byte order followed by
1680-414: A key length, the chief security risk is that the private key of a pair becomes known. All security of messages, authentication, etc., will then be lost. Additionally, with the advent of quantum computing , many asymmetric key algorithms are considered vulnerable to attacks, and new quantum-resistant schemes are being developed to overcome the problem. All public key schemes are in theory susceptible to
1785-580: A language's basic syntax . The syntax of the language BASIC (1964) was intentionally limited to make the language easy to learn. For example, variables are not declared before being used. Also, variables are automatically initialized to zero. Here is an example computer program, in Basic, to average a list of numbers: Once the mechanics of basic computer programming are learned, more sophisticated and powerful languages are available to build large computer systems. Improvements in software development are
1890-691: A long list of "self-signed identity certificates" from PKI providers – these are used to check the bona fides of the certificate authority and then, in a second step, the certificates of potential communicators. An attacker who could subvert one of those certificate authorities into issuing a certificate for a bogus public key could then mount a "man-in-the-middle" attack as easily as if the certificate scheme were not used at all. An attacker who penetrates an authority's servers and obtains its store of certificates and keys (public and private) would be able to spoof, masquerade, decrypt, and forge transactions without limit, assuming that they were able to place themselves in
1995-590: A major advantage over your opponent. Only at the end of the evolution from Berners-Lee designing an open internet architecture for CERN , its adaptation and adoption for the Arpanet ... did public key cryptography realise its full potential. — Ralph Benjamin These discoveries were not publicly acknowledged for 27 years, until the research was declassified by the British government in 1997. In 1976, an asymmetric key cryptosystem
2100-547: A man-in-the-middle attack relatively straightforward. Capturing the public key would only require searching for the key as it gets sent through the ISP's communications hardware; in properly implemented asymmetric key schemes, this is not a significant risk. In some advanced man-in-the-middle attacks, one side of the communication will see the original data while the other will receive a malicious variant. Asymmetric man-in-the-middle attacks can prevent users from realizing their connection
2205-439: A permanent ban. Players who wish to continue use of the software must repurchase it. This has inevitably led to criticism over the motivations of enforcing permanent bans. Particularly controversial is the situation which arises when multiple products' keys are bound together. If products have dependencies on other products (as is the case with expansion packs ), it is common for companies to ban all bound products. For example, if
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#17328802205762310-590: A prior shared secret. Merkle's "public key-agreement technique" became known as Merkle's Puzzles , and was invented in 1974 and only published in 1978. This makes asymmetric encryption a rather new field in cryptography although cryptography itself dates back more than 2,000 years. In 1977, a generalization of Cocks's scheme was independently invented by Ron Rivest , Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman , all then at MIT . The latter authors published their work in 1978 in Martin Gardner 's Scientific American column, and
2415-431: A product is shipped with missing or invalid keys, then the product itself is useless. For example, all copies of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow originally shipped to Australia without product keys. There are many cases of permanent bans enforced by companies detecting usage violations. It is common for an online system to immediately blacklist an account caught running cracks or, in some cases, cheats. This results in
2520-521: A profound influence on programming language design. Emerging from a committee of European and American programming language experts, it used standard mathematical notation and had a readable, structured design. Algol was first to define its syntax using the Backus–Naur form . This led to syntax-directed compilers. It added features like: Algol's direct descendants include Pascal , Modula-2 , Ada , Delphi and Oberon on one branch. On another branch
2625-493: A public key encryption system is for encrypting communication to provide confidentiality – a message that a sender encrypts using the recipient's public key, which can be decrypted only by the recipient's paired private key. Another application in public key cryptography is the digital signature . Digital signature schemes can be used for sender authentication . Non-repudiation systems use digital signatures to ensure that one party cannot successfully dispute its authorship of
2730-481: A purpose-built program running on a server computer – vouches for the identities assigned to specific private keys by producing a digital certificate. Public key digital certificates are typically valid for several years at a time, so the associated private keys must be held securely over that time. When a private key used for certificate creation higher in the PKI server hierarchy is compromised, or accidentally disclosed, then
2835-557: A result, the computer could be programmed quickly and perform calculations at very fast speeds. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly built the ENIAC. The two engineers introduced the stored-program concept in a three-page memo dated February 1944. Later, in September 1944, John von Neumann began working on the ENIAC project. On June 30, 1945, von Neumann published the First Draft of a Report on
2940-594: A single byte. H1 and H2 specify the hardware configuration that the Installation ID is linked to. P1 and P2 as well as the remaining byte P3 contain the Product ID associated with the Installation ID. The Product ID consists of five groups of decimal digits, as in AAAAA-BBB-CCCCCCC-DDEEE. The mapping between the Product ID in decimal representation and its binary encoding in the double words P1 and P2 and
3045-486: A trusted courier. This key, which both parties must then keep absolutely secret, could then be used to exchange encrypted messages. A number of significant practical difficulties arise with this approach to distributing keys . In his 1874 book The Principles of Science , William Stanley Jevons wrote: Can the reader say what two numbers multiplied together will produce the number 8616460799 ? I think it unlikely that anyone but myself will ever know. Here he described
3150-485: A wired route inside the sender's own building. In summation, public keys are easier to alter when the communications hardware used by a sender is controlled by an attacker. One approach to prevent such attacks involves the use of a public key infrastructure (PKI); a set of roles, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store and revoke digital certificates and manage public-key encryption. However, this has potential weaknesses. For example,
3255-438: Is a 50 digit decimal string that is divided into 5 groups of six digits each with 2 digits at the end, which takes the form of XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXX-XX. The installation ID is regenerated every time msoobe.exe is ran. The right most digit in each group of the installation ID is a check digit. Removing the check digits results in a 41-digit decimal encoded 136 bit multi precision integer , which
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3360-418: Is assigned to a class. An assigned function is then referred to as a method , member function , or operation . Object-oriented programming is executing operations on objects . Object-oriented languages support a syntax to model subset/superset relationships. In set theory , an element of a subset inherits all the attributes contained in the superset. For example, a student is a person. Therefore,
3465-413: Is compromised. This remains so even when one user's data is known to be compromised because the data appears fine to the other user. This can lead to confusing disagreements between users such as "it must be on your end!" when neither user is at fault. Hence, man-in-the-middle attacks are only fully preventable when the communications infrastructure is physically controlled by one or both parties; such as via
3570-401: Is genuine by verifying the signature using the public key. As long as the software publisher keeps the private key secret, even if a forger can distribute malicious updates to computers, they cannot convince the computers that any malicious updates are genuine. For example, a journalist can publish the public key of an encryption key pair on a web site so that sources can send secret messages to
3675-454: Is never trivial and very rapidly becomes unmanageable as the number of participants increases, or when secure channels are not available, or when, (as is sensible cryptographic practice), keys are frequently changed. In particular, if messages are meant to be secure from other users, a separate key is required for each possible pair of users. By contrast, in a public-key cryptosystem, the public keys can be disseminated widely and openly, and only
3780-459: Is now known as Diffie–Hellman key exchange . The scheme was also passed to the US's National Security Agency . Both organisations had a military focus and only limited computing power was available in any case; the potential of public key cryptography remained unrealised by either organization: I judged it most important for military use ... if you can share your key rapidly and electronically, you have
3885-684: Is required. If bit 31 of H2 indicates that our computer supports a docking station, only seven of the ten bit-fields mentioned above are compared. The bit-fields corresponding to the SCSI host adapter, the IDE controller, and the graphics board are omitted. Of these remaining seven bit-fields, only up to three may change without requiring re-activation. Some of the most effective product key protections are controversial due to inconvenience, strict enforcement, harsh penalties and, in some cases, false positives. Some product keys use uncompromising digital procedures to enforce
3990-406: Is stored in little endian byte order as a byte array . The lower 16 bytes of the Installation ID are encrypted, whereas the most significant byte is kept in plaintext. The cryptographic algorithm used to encrypt the Installation ID is a proprietary four-round Feistel cipher . Since the block of input bytes passed to a Feistel cipher is divided into two blocks of equal size, this class of ciphers
4095-546: Is stored in little endian byte order in an array of 15 bytes. Of these 15 bytes the least significant four bytes contain the Raw Product Key in little endian byte order. The least significant bit is removed by shifting this 32-bit value to the left by one bit position. The eleven remaining bytes form a digital signature, allowing verification of the authenticity of the Product Key by means of a hard-coded public key. To obtain
4200-548: Is to alter the electrical resistivity and conductivity of a semiconductor junction . First, naturally occurring silicate minerals are converted into polysilicon rods using the Siemens process . The Czochralski process then converts the rods into a monocrystalline silicon , boule crystal . The crystal is then thinly sliced to form a wafer substrate . The planar process of photolithography then integrates unipolar transistors, capacitors , diodes , and resistors onto
4305-524: Is typically applied to input blocks consisting of an even number of bytes in this case the lower 16 of the 17 input bytes. The round function of the cipher is the SHA-1 message digest algorithm keyed with a four-byte sequence. Let + denote the concatenation of two byte sequences, ^ the XOR operation, L and R the left and right eight-byte input half for one round, L' and R' the output halves of said round, and First-8()
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4410-525: The new statement. A module's other file is the source file . Here is a C++ source file for the GRADE class in a simple school application: Here is a C++ header file for the PERSON class in a simple school application: Public-key cryptography Public-key cryptography , or asymmetric cryptography , is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of
4515-604: The IBM System/360 (1964) had a CPU made from circuit boards containing discrete components on ceramic substrates . The Intel 4004 (1971) was a 4- bit microprocessor designed to run the Busicom calculator. Five months after its release, Intel released the Intel 8008 , an 8-bit microprocessor. Bill Pentz led a team at Sacramento State to build the first microcomputer using the Intel 8008:
4620-487: The Internet , more sophisticated attacks on keys such as cracks (removing the need for a key) and product key generators have become common. Because of this, software publishers use additional product activation methods to verify that keys are both valid and uncompromised. One method assigns a product key based on a unique feature of the purchaser's computer hardware, which cannot be as easily duplicated since it depends on
4725-443: The MD5 message digest algorithm and picking the number of bits required for a bit-field from predetermined locations in the resulting message digest. Different predetermined locations are used for different bit-fields. In addition, a hash result of zero is avoided by calculating H a s h = ( H a s h % B i t F i e l d M
4830-480: The Sac State 8008 (1972). Its purpose was to store patient medical records. The computer supported a disk operating system to run a Memorex , 3- megabyte , hard disk drive . It had a color display and keyboard that was packaged in a single console. The disk operating system was programmed using IBM's Basic Assembly Language (BAL) . The medical records application was programmed using a BASIC interpreter. However,
4935-550: The circuits . At its core, it was a series of Pascalines wired together. Its 40 units weighed 30 tons, occupied 1,800 square feet (167 m ), and consumed $ 650 per hour ( in 1940s currency ) in electricity when idle. It had 20 base-10 accumulators . Programming the ENIAC took up to two months. Three function tables were on wheels and needed to be rolled to fixed function panels. Function tables were connected to function panels by plugging heavy black cables into plugboards . Each function table had 728 rotating knobs. Programming
5040-404: The programming environment to advance from a computer terminal (until the 1990s) to a graphical user interface (GUI) computer. Computer terminals limited programmers to a single shell running in a command-line environment . During the 1970s, full-screen source code editing became possible through a text-based user interface . Regardless of the technology available, the goal is to program in
5145-449: The CCCCCCC component, a check digit is appended, and the check digit that is chosen such that the sum of all digits, including the check digit, is divisible by seven. For verifying a Product Key, more than one public key is available. If verification with the first public key fails, the second is tried, etc. The DD component of the Product ID specifies which of the public keys in this sequence
5250-494: The EDVAC , which equated the structures of the computer with the structures of the human brain. The design became known as the von Neumann architecture . The architecture was simultaneously deployed in the constructions of the EDVAC and EDSAC computers in 1949. The IBM System/360 (1964) was a family of computers, each having the same instruction set architecture . The Model 20 was
5355-433: The ENIAC also involved setting some of the 3,000 switches. Debugging a program took a week. It ran from 1947 until 1955 at Aberdeen Proving Ground , calculating hydrogen bomb parameters, predicting weather patterns, and producing firing tables to aim artillery guns. Instead of plugging in cords and turning switches, a stored-program computer loads its instructions into memory just like it loads its data into memory. As
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#17328802205765460-421: The PKI system (software, hardware, and management) is trust-able by all involved. A " web of trust " decentralizes authentication by using individual endorsements of links between a user and the public key belonging to that user. PGP uses this approach, in addition to lookup in the domain name system (DNS). The DKIM system for digitally signing emails also uses this approach. The most obvious application of
5565-517: The advantage of not requiring that a symmetric key be pre-shared manually, such as on printed paper or discs transported by a courier, while providing the higher data throughput of symmetric key cryptography over asymmetric key cryptography for the remainder of the shared connection. As with all security-related systems, there are various potential weaknesses in public-key cryptography. Aside from poor choice of an asymmetric key algorithm (there are few that are widely regarded as satisfactory) or too short
5670-411: The algorithm came to be known as RSA , from their initials. RSA uses exponentiation modulo a product of two very large primes , to encrypt and decrypt, performing both public key encryption and public key digital signatures. Its security is connected to the extreme difficulty of factoring large integers , a problem for which there is no known efficient general technique. A description of the algorithm
5775-567: The amount of RAM available to the operating system is calculated differently from the other bit-fields as shown in the table. Note that the amount of RAM is retrieved by calling the GlobalMemoryStatus() function, which reports a few hundred kilobytes less than the amount of RAM physically installed. So, 128 MB of RAM would typically be classified as "between 64 MB and 127 MB". wpa.dbl is the RC4 -encrypted database that stores, expiration information,
5880-413: The attacker using the correct public keys for the different communication segments so as to avoid suspicion. A communication is said to be insecure where data is transmitted in a manner that allows for interception (also called " sniffing "). These terms refer to reading the sender's private data in its entirety. A communication is particularly unsafe when interceptions can not be prevented or monitored by
5985-434: The available metadata to a third party. The concept is based around an open repository containing separately encrypted metadata blocks and encrypted messages. Only the intended recipient is able to decrypt the metadata block, and having done so they can identify and download their messages and decrypt them. Such a messaging system is at present in an experimental phase and not yet deployed. Scaling this method would reveal to
6090-447: The brute-force approach. None of these are sufficiently improved to be actually practical, however. Major weaknesses have been found for several formerly promising asymmetric key algorithms. The "knapsack packing" algorithm was found to be insecure after the development of a new attack. As with all cryptographic functions, public-key implementations may be vulnerable to side-channel attacks that exploit information leakage to simplify
6195-431: The byte P3 is summarized in the following table. EEE = Random value The Product key takes the form as XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX. Each character is one of the following 24 letters and digits: B C D F G H J K M P Q R T V W X Y 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 The 25 characters of the Product Key form a base-24 encoding of the binary representation of the Product Key. The Product Key is a multi-precision integer of roughly 115 bits, which
6300-441: The certificate authority issuing the certificate must be trusted by all participating parties to have properly checked the identity of the key-holder, to have ensured the correctness of the public key when it issues a certificate, to be secure from computer piracy, and to have made arrangements with all participants to check all their certificates before protected communications can begin. Web browsers , for instance, are supplied with
6405-640: The cheaper Intel 8088 . IBM embraced the Intel 8088 when they entered the personal computer market (1981). As consumer demand for personal computers increased, so did Intel's microprocessor development. The succession of development is known as the x86 series . The x86 assembly language is a family of backward-compatible machine instructions . Machine instructions created in earlier microprocessors were retained throughout microprocessor upgrades. This enabled consumers to purchase new computers without having to purchase new application software . The major categories of instructions are: VLSI circuits enabled
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#17328802205766510-495: The communication stream. Despite its theoretical and potential problems, Public key infrastructure is widely used. Examples include TLS and its predecessor SSL , which are commonly used to provide security for web browser transactions (for example, most websites utilize TLS for HTTPS ). Aside from the resistance to attack of a particular key pair, the security of the certification hierarchy must be considered when deploying public key systems. Some certificate authority – usually
6615-419: The computer was an evolutionary dead-end because it was extremely expensive. Also, it was built at a public university lab for a specific purpose. Nonetheless, the project contributed to the development of the Intel 8080 (1974) instruction set . In 1978, the modern software development environment began when Intel upgraded the Intel 8080 to the Intel 8086 . Intel simplified the Intel 8086 to manufacture
6720-415: The confidentiality and authenticity of electronic communications and data storage. They underpin numerous Internet standards, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) , SSH , S/MIME , and PGP . Compared to symmetric cryptography , public-key cryptography can be too slow for many purposes, so these protocols often combine symmetric cryptography with public-key cryptography in hybrid cryptosystems . Before
6825-537: The configuration, an execute button was pressed. This process was then repeated. Computer programs also were automatically inputted via paper tape , punched cards or magnetic-tape . After the medium was loaded, the starting address was set via switches, and the execute button was pressed. A major milestone in software development was the invention of the Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) circuit (1964). Following World War II , tube-based technology
6930-426: The confirmation ID of an activated installation, the bit-field values representing the current hardware configuration, and the bit-field values representing the hardware configuration at the time of product activation, etc. The current hardware configuration is automatically updated each time the hardware configuration is modified in order to reflect the changes, while the values representing the hardware configuration at
7035-432: The corresponding private keys need be kept secret. The two best-known types of public key cryptography are digital signature and public-key encryption: For example, a software publisher can create a signature key pair and include the public key in software installed on computers. Later, the publisher can distribute an update to the software signed using the private key, and any computer receiving an update can confirm it
7140-434: The descendants include C , C++ and Java . BASIC (1964) stands for "Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code". It was developed at Dartmouth College for all of their students to learn. If a student did not go on to a more powerful language, the student would still remember Basic. A Basic interpreter was installed in the microcomputers manufactured in the late 1970s. As the microcomputer industry grew, so did
7245-460: The first Fortran standard in 1966. In 1978, Fortran 77 became the standard until 1991. Fortran 90 supports: COBOL (1959) stands for "COmmon Business Oriented Language". Fortran manipulated symbols. It was soon realized that symbols did not need to be numbers, so strings were introduced. The US Department of Defense influenced COBOL's development, with Grace Hopper being a major contributor. The statements were English-like and verbose. The goal
7350-410: The form XXX-XXXXXXX. To determine whether the key is valid, Windows 95 performs the following checks: If all checks pass, the product key is valid. Consequently a product key of 000-0000000 would be considered valid under these conditions. Windows 95 OEM keys take the form XXXXX-OEM-XXXXXXX-XXXXX. Windows XP uses an installation ID, product ID, and a product key for activation. The installation ID
7455-514: The game's server anti-cheating software, resulting in a ban due to Wine or Cedega being a Windows API compatibility layer for Linux, so it is considered third-party (cheating) software by the game's server. Computer program A computer program in its human-readable form is called source code . Source code needs another computer program to execute because computers can only execute their native machine instructions . Therefore, source code may be translated to machine instructions using
7560-475: The language BCPL was replaced with B , and AT&T Bell Labs called the next version "C". Its purpose was to write the UNIX operating system . C is a relatively small language, making it easy to write compilers. Its growth mirrored the hardware growth in the 1980s. Its growth also was because it has the facilities of assembly language , but uses a high-level syntax . It added advanced features like: C allows
7665-400: The language. Basic pioneered the interactive session . It offered operating system commands within its environment: However, the Basic syntax was too simple for large programs. Recent dialects added structure and object-oriented extensions. Microsoft's Visual Basic is still widely used and produces a graphical user interface . C programming language (1973) got its name because
7770-454: The license agreement. Product keys are somewhat inconvenient for end users. Not only do they need to be entered whenever a program is installed, but the user must also be sure not to lose them. Loss of a product key usually means the software is useless once uninstalled, unless, prior to uninstallation, a key recovery application is used (although not all programs support this). Product keys also present new ways for distribution to go wrong. If
7875-557: The license, and banned. In large cases of false positives, they are sometimes corrected (as happened in World of Warcraft .) However, individual cases may not be given any attention. A common cause of false positives (as with the World of Warcraft case above) is users of unsupported platforms. For example, users of Linux can run Windows applications through compatibility layers such as Wine and Cedega . This software combination sometimes triggers
7980-485: The matrix was to burn out the unneeded connections. There were so many connections, firmware programmers wrote a computer program on another chip to oversee the burning. The technology became known as Programmable ROM . In 1971, Intel installed the computer program onto the chip and named it the Intel 4004 microprocessor . The terms microprocessor and central processing unit (CPU) are now used interchangeably. However, CPUs predate microprocessors. For example,
8085-414: The mid-1970s, all cipher systems used symmetric key algorithms , in which the same cryptographic key is used with the underlying algorithm by both the sender and the recipient, who must both keep it secret. Of necessity, the key in every such system had to be exchanged between the communicating parties in some secure way prior to any use of the system – for instance, via a secure channel . This requirement
8190-461: The news organization in ciphertext. Only the journalist who knows the corresponding private key can decrypt the ciphertexts to obtain the sources' messages—an eavesdropper reading email on its way to the journalist cannot decrypt the ciphertexts. However, public-key encryption does not conceal metadata like what computer a source used to send a message, when they sent it, or how long it is. Public-key encryption on its own also does not tell
8295-411: The private key of the intended recipient. This means that a third party could construct quite a detailed model of participants in a communication network, along with the subjects being discussed, even if the message body itself is hidden. However, there has been a recent demonstration of messaging with encrypted headers, which obscures the identities of the sender and recipient, and significantly reduces
8400-404: The program. This function manipulates the key sequence according to a mathematical algorithm and attempts to match the results to a set of valid solutions. Standard key generation, where product keys are generated mathematically, is not completely effective in stopping copyright infringement of software , as these keys can be distributed. In addition, with improved communication from the rise of
8505-443: The programmer to control which region of memory data is to be stored. Global variables and static variables require the fewest clock cycles to store. The stack is automatically used for the standard variable declarations . Heap memory is returned to a pointer variable from the malloc() function. In the 1970s, software engineers needed language support to break large projects down into modules . One obvious feature
8610-576: The recipient anything about who sent a message —it just conceals the content of the message. One important issue is confidence/proof that a particular public key is authentic, i.e. that it is correct and belongs to the person or entity claimed, and has not been tampered with or replaced by some (perhaps malicious) third party. There are several possible approaches, including: A public key infrastructure (PKI), in which one or more third parties – known as certificate authorities – certify ownership of key pairs. TLS relies upon this. This implies that
8715-460: The relationship of one-way functions to cryptography, and went on to discuss specifically the factorization problem used to create a trapdoor function . In July 1996, mathematician Solomon W. Golomb said: "Jevons anticipated a key feature of the RSA Algorithm for public key cryptography, although he certainly did not invent the concept of public key cryptography." In 1970, James H. Ellis ,
8820-436: The remaining ten bit-fields is present, the respective bit-field contains a non-zero value describing the component. A value of zero marks the hardware component as not present. All hardware components are identified by a hardware identification string obtained from the registry. Hashing this string provides the value for the corresponding bit-field. The hash result is obtained by feeding the hardware identification string into
8925-486: The result of improvements in computer hardware . At each stage in hardware's history, the task of computer programming changed dramatically. In 1837, Jacquard's loom inspired Charles Babbage to attempt to build the Analytical Engine . The names of the components of the calculating device were borrowed from the textile industry. In the textile industry, yarn was brought from the store to be milled. The device had
9030-547: The search for a secret key. These are often independent of the algorithm being used. Research is underway to both discover, and to protect against, new attacks. Another potential security vulnerability in using asymmetric keys is the possibility of a "man-in-the-middle" attack , in which the communication of public keys is intercepted by a third party (the "man in the middle") and then modified to provide different public keys instead. Encrypted messages and responses must, in all instances, be intercepted, decrypted, and re-encrypted by
9135-459: The sender. A man-in-the-middle attack can be difficult to implement due to the complexities of modern security protocols. However, the task becomes simpler when a sender is using insecure media such as public networks, the Internet , or wireless communication. In these cases an attacker can compromise the communications infrastructure rather than the data itself. A hypothetical malicious staff member at an Internet service provider (ISP) might find
9240-438: The set of students is a subset of the set of persons. As a result, students inherit all the attributes common to all persons. Additionally, students have unique attributes that other people do not have. Object-oriented languages model subset/superset relationships using inheritance . Object-oriented programming became the dominant language paradigm by the late 1990s. C++ (1985) was originally called "C with Classes". It
9345-467: The smallest and least expensive. Customers could upgrade and retain the same application software . The Model 195 was the most premium. Each System/360 model featured multiprogramming —having multiple processes in memory at once. When one process was waiting for input/output , another could compute. IBM planned for each model to be programmed using PL/1 . A committee was formed that included COBOL , Fortran and ALGOL programmers. The purpose
9450-418: The source code is requested for execution, then the operating system loads the corresponding interpreter into memory and starts a process. The interpreter then loads the source code into memory to translate and execute each statement . Running the source code is slower than running an executable . Moreover, the interpreter must be installed on the computer. The "Hello, World!" program is used to illustrate
9555-430: The synthesis of different programming languages . A programming language is a set of keywords , symbols , identifiers , and rules by which programmers can communicate instructions to the computer. They follow a set of rules called a syntax . Programming languages get their basis from formal languages . The purpose of defining a solution in terms of its formal language is to generate an algorithm to solve
9660-447: The tape back and forth, changing its contents as it performs an algorithm . The machine starts in the initial state, goes through a sequence of steps, and halts when it encounters the halt state. All present-day computers are Turing complete . The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC) was built between July 1943 and Fall 1945. It was a Turing complete , general-purpose computer that used 17,468 vacuum tubes to create
9765-407: The third party only the inbox server being used by the recipient and the timestamp of sending and receiving. The server could be shared by thousands of users, making social network modelling much more challenging. During the early history of cryptography , two parties would rely upon a key that they would exchange by means of a secure, but non-cryptographic, method such as a face-to-face meeting, or
9870-447: The time of product activation is fixed. When judging whether re-activation is necessary, the bit-field values of the current hardware configuration is compared to the hardware configuration at the time of activation. All bit-fields with the exception of the unused field and the 'dockable' field are compared. If more than three of these ten bit-fields have changed in the current hardware configuration since product activation, re-activation
9975-553: The underlining problem. An algorithm is a sequence of simple instructions that solve a problem. The evolution of programming languages began when the EDSAC (1949) used the first stored computer program in its von Neumann architecture . Programming the EDSAC was in the first generation of programming language . Imperative languages specify a sequential algorithm using declarations , expressions , and statements : FORTRAN (1958)
10080-457: The user's hardware. Another method involves requiring one-time or periodical validation of the product key with an internet server (for games with an online component, this is done whenever the user signs in). The server can deactivate unmodified client software presenting invalid or compromised keys. Modified clients may bypass these checks, but the server can still deny those clients information or communication. Windows 95 retail product keys take
10185-448: The wafer to build a matrix of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistors. The MOS transistor is the primary component in integrated circuit chips . Originally, integrated circuit chips had their function set during manufacturing. During the 1960s, controlling the electrical flow migrated to programming a matrix of read-only memory (ROM). The matrix resembled a two-dimensional array of fuses. The process to embed instructions onto
10290-427: Was designed to expand C's capabilities by adding the object-oriented facilities of the language Simula . An object-oriented module is composed of two files. The definitions file is called the header file . Here is a C++ header file for the GRADE class in a simple school application: A constructor operation is a function with the same name as the class name. It is executed when the calling operation executes
10395-512: Was published by Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman who, influenced by Ralph Merkle 's work on public key distribution, disclosed a method of public key agreement. This method of key exchange, which uses exponentiation in a finite field , came to be known as Diffie–Hellman key exchange . This was the first published practical method for establishing a shared secret-key over an authenticated (but not confidential) communications channel without using
10500-436: Was replaced with point-contact transistors (1947) and bipolar junction transistors (late 1950s) mounted on a circuit board . During the 1960s , the aerospace industry replaced the circuit board with an integrated circuit chip . Robert Noyce , co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor (1957) and Intel (1968), achieved a technological improvement to refine the production of field-effect transistors (1963). The goal
10605-402: Was successfully used to verify the Product Key. The hardware configuration linked to the Installation ID is represented by the two double words H1 and H2. For this purpose, the double words are divided into twelve bit-fields. If docking is possible, the activation mechanism will be more tolerant with respect to future hardware modifications. If the hardware component corresponding to one of
10710-405: Was to decompose large projects physically into separate files . A less obvious feature was to decompose large projects logically into abstract data types . At the time, languages supported concrete (scalar) datatypes like integer numbers, floating-point numbers, and strings of characters . Abstract datatypes are structures of concrete datatypes, with a new name assigned. For example,
10815-433: Was to design a language so managers could read the programs. However, the lack of structured statements hindered this goal. COBOL's development was tightly controlled, so dialects did not emerge to require ANSI standards. As a consequence, it was not changed for 15 years until 1974. The 1990s version did make consequential changes, like object-oriented programming . ALGOL (1960) stands for "ALGOrithmic Language". It had
10920-425: Was to develop a language that was comprehensive, easy to use, extendible, and would replace Cobol and Fortran. The result was a large and complex language that took a long time to compile . Computers manufactured until the 1970s had front-panel switches for manual programming. The computer program was written on paper for reference. An instruction was represented by a configuration of on/off settings. After setting
11025-423: Was unveiled as "The IBM Mathematical FORmula TRANslating system". It was designed for scientific calculations, without string handling facilities. Along with declarations , expressions , and statements , it supported: It succeeded because: However, non-IBM vendors also wrote Fortran compilers, but with a syntax that would likely fail IBM's compiler. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) developed
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