System for binding secrets to a computer system having tolerance for hardware changes

A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing a method of determining whether a software product can be used on a second computer system having a second hardware configuration, wherein the second computer system is identical to or different from the first computer system, wherein the method comprises:

• identifying the n components classes used to determine the strong hardware identification (SHWID);
• identifying all instances within each component class of the second hardware configuration;
• retrieving an identification string that represents each individual component instance;
• generating instance primes, ip,q, for each component instance, wherein each instance prime is a positive prime number, and wherein p represents a given component class number ranging from 1 to n, and q represents the q-th type of component within the first hardware configuration or the second hardware configuration;
• retrieving possible class partial secrets, Pp,q, wherein:
• Pp,q=[Cp(mod ip,q)];
• extracting possible class primes, Pp,q, and possible class remainders, dp,q, from the possible class partial secrets, Pp,q;
• solving the set of congruences provided by a permutation of possible class primes and possible class remainders to produce a possible secret;
• and
• testing the possible secret by decoding a given ciphertext using the possible secret as the key for decoding and testing the resultant plaintext obtained by decrypting the given ciphertext with the possible secret against a corresponding known plaintext;
• wherein:
• if the resultant plaintext matches the known plaintext, loading the software product onto the second computer system;
• and
• if the resultant plaintext does not match the known plaintext, preventing the software product from being loaded onto the second computer system.