January 11, 2009

Announcing WinWrap® Basic v10.01

Polar Engineering and Consulting is pleased to announce the release of WinWrap® Basic v10.01. Three significant changes come with v10.01:

Script Protection and Encryption - Licensees can deliver secure, proprietary scripts to their end-users.
Certificates - Licensees can authorize developer and end-user actions.
Licensing Options - Licensees can choose the options they want.

Go to the Order page to get started with WinWrap® Basic.

As always, if you have questions please contact Tom Bennett at <%HideEmailAddress("tom.bennett@winwrap.com");%>.

Thanks for your continued interest in WinWrap® Basic.

Tom Bennett
Polar Engineering and Consulting

Script Protection and Encryption

WinWrap® Basic licensees can deliver secure, proprietary scripts to their end-users. This is done using the new script encryption and script protection capabilities of WinWrap® Basic v10.01.

A script can be encrypted and protected from viewing by adding the following comments:

'#EncryptingCert certkey ["prompt" [passphrase]]
'#ViewingCert certkey ["prompt" [passphrase]]

These two comments secure the contents of a script against unauthorized changes and viewing. The unencrypted form of an example (Secure.bas) is:

'#EncryptingCert 00000003 "WinWrap® Director Encryption Protection" eval-enc
'#ViewingCert 00000004 "WinWrap® Director Script Protection"
Function SF
    SF = "secret"
End Function

When working with Secure.bas in WinWrap® Director the developer can view the code by entering Permission certificate 000000004's passphrase (eval-perm), and save the code by entering Encryption certificate 000000003's passphrase (eval-enc).

The encrypted form of Secure.bas is:

DecryptionCert 00000003
+TaCaYk6bckkFef9yuRqTCvxXCEu/czE/+ivRAF6p4MkD9YiMPwxlS0W7SQ2IQoMJSJvEUO7vaOp
/QTDiQTp9yZPmO2cvF8JqEbeQXM7KnHSDOE+Dqe81P6mSH6thMyMwDJwUXt7Wm9mZ3AM/Ic2tNdi
OOedIUhQcxWaeiEsK2xMsN97voDqbD5MhgWVdIM7MwVcz9KAgzKh60pZysCbHzn3H2HaGiE2n3qb
tGHO7sNiKA+se45hqpsl0ZumHaUXAgtgkl2e47JFeSCjQkf/T8i2TWdZHWBmwsZecJkQ/T6XKS9R
/rQvooGa541Kb2gW9vCCurAjo1mr8nXd8K4WD6a1EtYQKQcNqADDLS8HeOMFanigq1O0vIsfR400
5cqpzGUgoXd6b1MuJxV+MfzksWP/wTSndGx/h183jYHD6n894rp1aplciboUQQTPPOrfMDjtXPMK
es8JwgBr52LV1wwzoW+2FcY4OvhA/x2W1pLkBPHd9R1EDL8GdEO/DQCZZ8wFMVGM3Y/x7NLZUCew
1GVv66LHoYcgRb/IB+CNLLv0u9BrA4uvU4SbhE7SRA==

Secure.bas can't be changed, viewed or debugged by an end-user.

Insuring that Secure.bas usage is tamper proof:

'#Uses "Secure.bas/00000003"
Sub Main
    Debug.Print SF
End Sub

Including the Decryption certificate key insures that the encrypted script can't simply be replaced with an unencrypted one. The IDE helps with this by automatically inserting the Decryption certificate's key into '#Uses comments during auto completion.

Script commands like MacroRun may include the key, too. All method calls (like LoadModule) from the application may include the key when working with encrypted scripts. All events that provide a script name include the key in the script name. Using the key insures that the target script can't be replaced with an unencrypted one.

As part of v10.01 you will receive one Permission certificate and one Encryption-Decryption certificate pair. These certificates are private to your license and can't be used by any other WinWrap® Basic licensee's applications. To use Encryption you will need to add the Encryption-Decryption option to at least one of your Application certificates.

Certificates

WinWrap® Basic v10.01 uses certificates to authorize actions during the design of the application and execution of scripts. Certificates are essential for the protection of your encrypted scripts' intellectual property.

To get started with certificates go to the Order page.

Authorized Action

The primary function of a certificate is to authorize an action:

Action	Description
Design	This action occurs when a BasicIdeCtl control is placed on a form while using Visual Studio. (The COM/.NET licensing model and Visual Studio enforce this requirement.)
Run	This action occurs when any Basic object or control is created by the executing Windows application.
Edit/Debug	This action occurs when a BasicIdeCtl control or BasicIdeObj object is created by the executing Windows application.
CheckPassphrase	This action occurs when a developer uses the '#EditingCert or '#ViewingCert comment.
Encrypt	This action occurs when a developer uses the '#EncryptingCert comment.
Decrypt	This action occurs when an end-user executes an encrypted script.

To ease development of new applications and capabilities developers can create Test certificates prior to purchasing.

WinWrap® Basic v10.01 Licensing Options

Over the last 15 years many new capabilities have been added to WinWrap® Basic. Not all capabilities are appropriate for all host applications. New with WinWrap® Basic v10.01 are licensing options which allow licensees to choose the desired options.

To order WinWrap® Basic certificates go to the Order page.