How to get a unique computer identifier in Java like disk ID or motherboard ID

Question

I d like to get an id unique to a computer with Java  on Windows  MacOS and  if possible  Linux  It could be a disk UUID  motherboard S N     Runtime getRuntime   exec can be used  it is not an applet    Ideas

User · Answer

I think you should look at this link     you can make a mixed key using several identifiers such as mac os hostname cpu id motherboard serial number

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In the java programs I have written for release I used the motherboard serial number  which is what I beleive windows use   however  this only works on windows as my function creates a temporary VB script which uses the WMI to retrieve the value   public static String getMotherboardSerial           String result               try             File file   File createTempFile  GetMBSerial    vbs              file deleteOnExit              FileWriter fw   new FileWriter file              String vbs                 Set objWMIService   GetObject   winmgmts        root  cimv2    n                 Set colItems   objWMIService ExecQuery    n                       Select   from Win32 ComputerSystemProduct     n                 For Each objItem in colItems  n                     Wscript Echo objItem IdentifyingNumber  n                 Next  n              fw write vbs             fw close              Process gWMI   Runtime getRuntime   exec  cscript   NoLogo     file getPath               BufferedReader input   new BufferedReader new InputStreamReader gWMI getInputStream                String line            while   line   input readLine       null                 result    line               System out println line                         input close                      catch Exception e               e printStackTrace                      result   result trim            return result

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The OSHI project provides platform-independent hardware utilities   Maven dependency    lt dependency gt       lt groupId gt com github oshi lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt oshi-core lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt LATEST lt  version gt   lt  dependency gt    For instance  you could use something like the following code to identify a machine uniquely   import oshi SystemInfo  import oshi hardware CentralProcessor  import oshi hardware ComputerSystem  import oshi hardware HardwareAbstractionLayer  import oshi software os OperatingSystem   class ComputerIdentifier       static String generateLicenseKey                 SystemInfo systemInfo   new SystemInfo            OperatingSystem operatingSystem   systemInfo getOperatingSystem            HardwareAbstractionLayer hardwareAbstractionLayer   systemInfo getHardware            CentralProcessor centralProcessor   hardwareAbstractionLayer getProcessor            ComputerSystem computerSystem   hardwareAbstractionLayer getComputerSystem             String vendor   operatingSystem getManufacturer            String processorSerialNumber   computerSystem getSerialNumber            String processorIdentifier   centralProcessor getIdentifier            int processors   centralProcessor getLogicalProcessorCount             String delimiter                 return vendor                   delimiter                   processorSerialNumber                   delimiter                   processorIdentifier                   delimiter                   processors             public static void main String   arguments                String identifier   generateLicenseKey            System out println identifier             Output for my machine   Microsoft 57YRD12 Intel64 Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3 8   Your output will be different since at least the processor serial number will differ

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The usage of MAC id is most easier way if the task is about logging the unique id a system   the change of mac id is though possible  even the change of other ids of a system are also possible is that respective device is replaced   so  unless what for a unique id is required is not known  we may not be able to find an appropriate solution   However  the below link is helpful extracting mac addresses  http   www stratos me 2008 07 find-mac-address-using-java

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Be careful when using the MAC address as an identifier   I ve experienced several gotchas    On OS X  ethernet ports that are not active up do not show up in the NetworkInterface getNetworkInterfaces   Enumeration  It s insanely easy to change a MAC address on cards if you ve got appropriate OS privileges  Java has a habit of not correctly identifying  virtual  interfaces   Even using the NetworkInterface isVirtual   won t always tell you the truth      Even with the above issues  I still think it s the best pure Java approach to hardware locking a license

User · Answer

What do you want to do with this unique ID  Maybe you can do what you want without this ID   The MAC address maybe is one option but this is not an trusted unique ID because the user can change the MAC address of a computer   To get the motherboard or processor ID check on this link

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The problem with MAC address is that there can be many network adapters connected to the computer  Most of the newest ones have two by default  wi-fi   cable   In such situation one would have to know which adapter s MAC address should be used  I tested MAC solution on my system  but I have 4 adapters  cable  WiFi  TAP adapter for Virtual Box and one for Bluetooth  and I was not able to decide which MAC I should take    If one would decide to use adapter which is currently in use  has addresses assigned  then new problem appears since someone can take his her laptop and switch from cable adapter to wi-fi  With such condition MAC stored when laptop was connected through cable will now be invalid   For example those are adapters I found in my system   lo MS TCP Loopback interface eth0 Intel R  Centrino R  Advanced-N 6205 eth1 Intel R  82579LM Gigabit Network Connection eth2 VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter eth3 Sterownik serwera dostepu do sieci LAN Bluetooth   Code I ve used to list them   Enumeration lt NetworkInterface gt  nis   NetworkInterface getNetworkInterfaces    while  nis hasMoreElements          NetworkInterface ni   nis nextElement        System out println ni getName           ni getDisplayName         From the options listen on this page  the most acceptable for me  and the one I ve used in my solution is the one by  Ozhan Duz  the other one  similar to  finnw answer where he used JACOB  and worth mentioning is com4j - sample which makes use of WMI is available here   ISWbemLocator wbemLocator   ClassFactory createSWbemLocator    ISWbemServices wbemServices   wbemLocator connectServer  localhost   Root  CIMv2              0 null   ISWbemObjectSet result   wbemServices execQuery  Select   from Win32 SystemEnclosure   WQL  16 null   for Com4jObject obj   result        ISWbemObject wo   obj queryInterface ISWbemObject class       System out println wo getObjectText  0        This will print some computer information together with computer Serial Number  Please note that all classes required by this example has to be generated by maven-com4j-plugin  Example configuration for maven-com4j-plugin    lt plugin gt       lt groupId gt org jvnet com4j lt  groupId gt       lt artifactId gt maven-com4j-plugin lt  artifactId gt       lt version gt 1 0 lt  version gt       lt configuration gt           lt libId gt 565783C6-CB41-11D1-8B02-00600806D9B6 lt  libId gt           lt package gt win wmi lt  package gt           lt outputDirectory gt   project build directory  generated-sources com4j lt  outputDirectory gt       lt  configuration gt       lt executions gt           lt execution gt               lt id gt generate-wmi-bridge lt  id gt               lt goals gt                   lt goal gt gen lt  goal gt               lt  goals gt           lt  execution gt       lt  executions gt   lt  plugin gt    Above s configuration will tell plugin to generate classes in target generated-sources com4j directory in the project folder   For those who would like to see ready-to-use solution  I m including links to the three classes I wrote to get machine SN on Windows  Linux and Mac OS    Java code to get computer SN on Windows Java code to get computer SN on Linux Java code to get computer SN on Mac OS

User · Answer

For identifying a windows machine uniquely  Make sure when you use wmic to have a strategy of alternative methods  Since  wmic bios get serialnumber  might not work on all machines  you might need to have additional methods     Get serial number from bios wmic bios get serialnumber   If previous fails  get UUID wmic csproduct get UUID   If previous fails  get diskdrive serialnumber wmic DISKDRIVE get SerialNumber   Resources  The Best Way To Uniquely Identify A Windows Machine http   www nextofwindows com the-best-way-to-uniquely-identify-a-windows-machine

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Not Knowing all of your requirements  For example  are you trying to uniquely identify a computer from all of the computers in the world  or are you just trying to uniquely identify a computer from a set of users of your application  Also  can you create files on the system   If you are able to create a file  You could create a file and use the creation time of the file as your unique id  If you create it in user space then it would uniquely identify a user of your application on a particular machine  If you created it somewhere global then it could uniquely identify the machine   Again  as most things  How fast is fast enough   or in this case  how unique is unique enough

User · Answer

On Windows only  you can get the motherboard ID using WMI  through a COM bridge such as JACOB   Example   import java util Enumeration  import com jacob activeX ActiveXComponent  import com jacob com ComThread  import com jacob com EnumVariant  import com jacob com Variant   public class Test       public static void main String   args            ComThread InitMTA            try               ActiveXComponent wmi   new ActiveXComponent  winmgmts                      Variant instances   wmi invoke  InstancesOf    Win32 BaseBoard                Enumeration lt Variant gt  en   new EnumVariant instances getDispatch                 while  en hasMoreElements                                  ActiveXComponent bb   new ActiveXComponent en nextElement   getDispatch                     System out println bb getPropertyAsString  SerialNumber                     break                          finally               ComThread Release                        And if you choose to use the MAC address to identify the machine  you can use WMI to determine whether an interface is connected via USB  if you want to exclude USB adapters    It s also possible to get a hard drive ID via WMI but this is unreliable

User · Answer

It is common to use the MAC address is associated with the network card   The address is available in Java 6 through through the following API   Java 6 Docs for Hardware Address  I haven t used it in Java  but for other network identification applications it has been helpful

[java] How to get a unique computer identifier in Java (like disk ID or motherboard ID)?

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