Generate machine-specific key for Mac - c++

Question

On Windows, we generate a PC-specific unique key used to tie a license to a PC. It's a C++ app using wxWidgets, which is theoretically cross-platform compatible but not been maintained on the Mac side. We use some Win32-specific code for generating a key... how might I do something comparable on the Mac?

Answer 1

Looking more into whitelionV and blahdiblah's asnwers, I found this useful page:
Accessing the system serial number programmatically
#include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>
#include <IOKit/IOKitLib.h>
// Returns the serial number as a CFString.
// It is the caller's responsibility to release the returned CFString when done with it.
void CopySerialNumber(CFStringRef *serialNumber)
{
if (serialNumber != NULL) {
*serialNumber = NULL;
io_service_t platformExpert = IOServiceGetMatchingService(kIOMasterPortDefault,
IOServiceMatching("IOPlatformExpertDevice"));
if (platformExpert) {
CFTypeRef serialNumberAsCFString =
IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(platformExpert,
CFSTR(kIOPlatformSerialNumberKey),
kCFAllocatorDefault, 0);
if (serialNumberAsCFString) {
*serialNumber = serialNumberAsCFString;
}
IOObjectRelease(platformExpert);
}
}
}
Accessing the built-in MAC address programmatically
#include <stdio.h>
#include <CoreFoundation/CoreFoundation.h>
#include <IOKit/IOKitLib.h>
#include <IOKit/network/IOEthernetInterface.h>
#include <IOKit/network/IONetworkInterface.h>
#include <IOKit/network/IOEthernetController.h>
static kern_return_t FindEthernetInterfaces(io_iterator_t *matchingServices);
static kern_return_t GetMACAddress(io_iterator_t intfIterator, UInt8 *MACAddress, UInt8 bufferSize);
static kern_return_t FindEthernetInterfaces(io_iterator_t *matchingServices)
{
kern_return_t kernResult;
CFMutableDictionaryRef matchingDict;
CFMutableDictionaryRef propertyMatchDict;
matchingDict = IOServiceMatching(kIOEthernetInterfaceClass);
if (NULL == matchingDict) {
printf("IOServiceMatching returned a NULL dictionary.\n");
}
else {
propertyMatchDict = CFDictionaryCreateMutable(kCFAllocatorDefault, 0,
&kCFTypeDictionaryKeyCallBacks,
&kCFTypeDictionaryValueCallBacks);
if (NULL == propertyMatchDict) {
printf("CFDictionaryCreateMutable returned a NULL dictionary.\n");
}
else {
CFDictionarySetValue(matchingDict, CFSTR(kIOPropertyMatchKey), propertyMatchDict);
CFRelease(propertyMatchDict);
}
}
kernResult = IOServiceGetMatchingServices(kIOMasterPortDefault, matchingDict, matchingServices);
if (KERN_SUCCESS != kernResult) {
printf("IOServiceGetMatchingServices returned 0x%08x\n", kernResult);
}
return kernResult;
}
static kern_return_t GetMACAddress(io_iterator_t intfIterator, UInt8 *MACAddress, UInt8 bufferSize)
{
io_object_t intfService;
io_object_t controllerService;
kern_return_t kernResult = KERN_FAILURE;
if (bufferSize < kIOEthernetAddressSize) {
return kernResult;
}
bzero(MACAddress, bufferSize);
while ((intfService = IOIteratorNext(intfIterator)))
{
CFTypeRef MACAddressAsCFData;
kernResult = IORegistryEntryGetParentEntry(intfService,
kIOServicePlane,
&controllerService);
if (KERN_SUCCESS != kernResult) {
printf("IORegistryEntryGetParentEntry returned 0x%08x\n", kernResult);
}
else {
MACAddressAsCFData = IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(controllerService,
CFSTR(kIOMACAddress),
kCFAllocatorDefault,
0);
if (MACAddressAsCFData) {
CFShow(MACAddressAsCFData); // for display purposes only; output goes to stderr
CFDataGetBytes(MACAddressAsCFData, CFRangeMake(0, kIOEthernetAddressSize), MACAddress);
CFRelease(MACAddressAsCFData);
}
(void) IOObjectRelease(controllerService);
}
(void) IOObjectRelease(intfService);
}
return kernResult;
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
kern_return_t kernResult = KERN_SUCCESS;
io_iterator_t intfIterator;
UInt8 MACAddress[kIOEthernetAddressSize];
kernResult = FindEthernetInterfaces(&intfIterator);
if (KERN_SUCCESS != kernResult) {
printf("FindEthernetInterfaces returned 0x%08x\n", kernResult);
}
else {
kernResult = GetMACAddress(intfIterator, MACAddress, sizeof(MACAddress));
if (KERN_SUCCESS != kernResult) {
printf("GetMACAddress returned 0x%08x\n", kernResult);
}
else {
printf("This system's built-in MAC address is %02x:%02x:%02x:%02x:%02x:%02x.\n",
MACAddress[0], MACAddress[1], MACAddress[2], MACAddress[3], MACAddress[4], MACAddress[5]);
}
}
(void) IOObjectRelease(intfIterator); // Release the iterator.
return kernResult;
}
While MAC is on the face of it probably preferable as being more predictable, they warn that:
Netbooting introduces a wrinkle with systems with multiple built-in
Ethernet ports. The primary Ethernet port on these systems is the one
that is connected to the NetBoot server. This means that a search for
the primary port may return either of the built-in MAC addresses
depending on which port was used for netbooting. Note that "built-in"
does not include Ethernet ports that reside on an expansion card.
It concerns me this might mean you don't always get the same value back?

Answer 2

You could just call system_profiler and look for "Serial Number"
/usr/sbin/system_profiler | grep "Serial Number (system)"
There might well be a programmatic way to get the same information, but I don't know it offhand.

Answer 3

To uniquely identify any machine you could try to use the MAC address. The process, although not trivial, its quite simple. There are a lot of cross platform open source libraries.
In fact you could try this Apple dev example