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I was working on a project recently that required unique API keys to be generated for clients connecting to the server. For various reasons, I settled on the style of license key you commonly see for software packages. You know, the kind you always had to read off the back of a CD case and type in when installing the application. Like H8OV7-HNTB5-JLLOH-W8FG2.

It’s fairly easy to write such a function. The basic idea is to loop around four times—once for each segment—and have a nested loop that runs five times, picking a random character each time. Here’s what I came up with:

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The $tokens string contains the characters that are valid in the key, so the loop can pick from it. The $segment_chars and $num_segments variables are the number of characters in a segment and the number of segments in the key, respectively. $key_string is an empty string that the loop will add the characters into.

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The first for loop runs four times, assuming the desired result is four segments in the key. The inner loop picks a character out of $tokens at random each time it goes around. (PHP strings are also arrays, with the each character having its own numerical offset.) The characters are tacked onto the $segment string.

Then the segment is joined with the $key_string, and a dash character is applied if the loop isn’t on the final segment yet. End result: something like H8OV7-HNTB5-JLLOH-W8FG2.

Now how can you make sure the key is unique when it’s generated?

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You generate a new key string with the function, check to see if it exists in your database, and lather/rinse/repeat until that is no longer the case. Usually you won’t have collisions too often, so it will only need to run once. I’m too lazy to figure out the probability, but considering there are 52,521,875 possible combinations for one 5-character segment…you’re probably not going to run into performance issues anytime soon. And if you do, just add another segment onto your key strings.

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Background

Picking up used enterprise equipment online can be a great way to fill out a homelab environment on a budget.Unfortunately, Dell won't issue licensing for devices out of warranty, and warranties for 10-year-old end-of-life equipment are either difficult/impossible to obtain or extremely cost-prohibitive for educational use purposes.Warranties also become rather useless in most lab environments if disposable or where uptime isn't critical to operations.

Benchmarking an all-flash MD3220 array with fully-redundant cabling and HBA adapters was a bit disappointing due to the arbitrary performance limitations put in place by Dell from lack of a 'High Performance Tier' license.Since the proper channels won't provide any assistance with this due to reasons mentioned above there was little choice left but to pop open the hood and take a look at what's inside to assess feasibility and hopefully breathe some new life back into this aging hardware.

Research

Sample Gathering

A sample license key can be obtained through md-storage.com using Dell's instructional video for reference.Additional license keys for comparison purposes were obtained via various support logs publicly posted online containing the pairs of service tags and feature enable identifiers necessary for fulfillment.Viewing the licenses in a hex editor shows each feature key likely has a 20-byte hash associated with it; SHA1 being the primary candidate.Unfortunately none of the hashes matched up with standard SHA1 results across the various blocks of data so further digging was required.

Firmware Analysis

The latest firmware can be found directly on Dell's website.Viewing the file in a hex editor shows a custom package file format with a header and chunk(s) of data afterwards.Running offzip against it luckily enough extracts the content within.Disassembling the extracted binaries with ghidra, searching for the SHA1 initialization constants, and then backtracking through callers led to a utlCreateFeatureKey function within the largest binary.

Client Software Analysis

The MDSM client management software can be obtained directly from Dell's site and then extracted through several layers using 7-zip until the target SMClient.jar is found.Fortunately, the client software exists unobfuscated in java form which can be easily decompiled.It turns out the utlCreateFeatureKey parameters are in the order they exist in the SMClient FeatureKey class with the addition of sizes being serialized into the mix preceeding arrays.

Discovery

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The Dell (NetApp/LSI) PowerVault storage array lineup 'sign' their multi-thousand-dollar premium feature license keys using a salted SHA1 hash of various key components.Hash algorithms are not a sufficient means to protect information and should be used for error-checking purposes only.Ideally, the firmware packages and licenses would both be RSA-signed and encrypted to prevent lazy analysis/modification attempts such as this.The accompanying project is a proof of concept I've used to validate these findings and generate license keys which match the sample licenses.

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Disclaimer

This is my own original research/work that has been obtained/created through legal means via reverse-engineering publicly available information related to a legacy device I own and contains no copyright-infringing material of any kind.Everything above can be done without agreeing to any TOS/EULA etc.I am in no way condoning piracy, particularly in a business setting, but do wish to bring attention to Dell's lack of consideration towards educational use on older generation equipment.What others do with this information is not my responsibility.