A dongle is a piece of hardware that must be plugged into a computer’s Universal Serial Bus (USB) port before some types of software programs can run. This is to ensure that the software is not copied or otherwise shared. A dongle emulator is a fake dongle created to get around this limitation, like a master key. Since dongles are often encrypted to prevent this type of hacking, a dongle emulator is also known as a “dongle crack”.
Information on how to create a dongle emulator is usually passed from one hacker to another.
Since creating a dongle emulator releases the software for use by those who have not paid for it, it is considered illegal. Many software licenses have clauses stating that creating such a device violates the user agreement. This is not to say that hackers don’t create dongle emulators, and guides to cracking a dongle’s security encryption aren’t available on the Internet and elsewhere.
A USB key.
There are currently two ways to get a dongle emulator. If a person has the skills to bypass network security, he can create one. Information on how to create a dongle emulator is usually passed from hacker to hacker and traded on forums and internet sites. Someone with no coding knowledge can also buy dongle emulators on websites. Due to their illegality, many websites that claim to provide working dongle emulators do not appear legitimate.
Since software using dongles is typically for a small market, the price of a replacement dongle can be in the hundreds of US dollars. Some software companies require the user to purchase an entirely new software package if the dongle is lost or stolen, further inflating the price. Supporters of dongle emulators claim that such restrictions on the use of software are unfair and incompatible with the actual conditions of use of computers and software.
Earlier forms of software simply required the presence of a dongle to run the software on a computer. Hackers broke these restrictions by writing a program to trick the software into thinking the dongle was already plugged in. To prevent this, some dongles are now designed to retain certain pieces of software code or perform certain tasks for the program. Even if a dongle emulator tells the software that a dongle is present, the software may still not work because parts of the code are missing. As hackers find ways around these innovations, new ways of dongle encryption may need to be found.
