Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!linac!midway!gsbsun!valley
From: valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu (Doug Dougherty)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Copy protection under Netware
Summary: Is it possible to grant execute only privs to a Netware dir?
Keywords: copy protection novell netware
Message-ID: <1991Jun28.171404.18405@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 28 Jun 91 17:14:04 GMT
Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (NewsMistress)
Organization: University of Chicago
Lines: 23

I maintain a directory of publicly accessible utilities on our network.
I would like for it to be possible for users to be able to run these
programs, but not copy them elsewhere.  I.e., the eqv of setting the X
bit (only) under Unix.

I assume this is a common problem, and I think newer versions of Netware
(we are running 2.15) may in fact have this built-in, but I was
wondering if there was any way to accomplish it under the version we are
running.

One way that occurs to me to solve this is to do something similar to
what the EXE compressors (Diet, LZEXE, etc) do, namely put some kind of
header code onto the beginning of each executable file that would get
control before the actual program.  Then you could write a little patch
that would look up the full program name in the environment block
(DOS 3.x+ only) and abort if it wasn't what it should be.  Of course,
you would encrypt the name of the file in the executable to discourage
hacking.  I know just about enough to do this, but I would appreciate
any pointers to books, articles, etc that describe how to hack the EXE
header.  Thanks in advance...
--

	(Another fine mess brought to you by valley@gsbsun.uchicago.edu)