Wibu-Systems unveils new system gen
New versions of CodeMeter and Protection Suite
Wibu-Systems, a provider of solutions for software protection, licensing, and security, has released CodeMeter 9.00 and CodeMeter Protection Suite 11.80. According to Wibu-Systems, the new versions mark an important step in the evolution of the CodeMeter ecosystem.
CodeMeter Runtime is entering a new architectural generation, while CodeMeter Protection Suite continues to expand the options available to software publishers for protecting intellectual property, enforcing licensing models, and securing valuable application logic against reverse engineering and manipulation.
Building the Runtime Foundation for Future Cryptography
With CodeMeter 9.00, Wibu-Systems is initiating the step-by-step transformation toward a universal runtime environment that will support both today’s CmDongles and a new generation of CmDongles built for Post-Quantum Cryptography. This development is not a disruptive break, but a carefully managed transition. The compatibility promise for the CodeMeter API remains fully in place: Software that has been directly integrated with the API or protected with CodeMeter Protection Suite does not require any adjustments.
The release strengthens the cryptographic foundation across Wibu-Systems’ license container portfolio. Universal Data, a flexible storage area for cryptographic keys, algorithm-specific data, and vendor-defined information inside CodeMeter license containers, now extends beyond hardware-based CmDongles to software-based CmActLicenses and cloud-based CmCloudContainers. This gives software vendors a more consistent way to use advanced cryptographic data across hardware, software, and cloud licensing models, including longer asymmetric keys and future-oriented post-quantum scenarios.
For software publishers, this extends a principle that has shaped CodeMeter from the start: interoperability across license container types. Vendors can combine hardware-secured licensing with CmDongles, software-bound licensing with CmActLicenses, and identity- or cloud-based licensing with CmCloudContainers within one consistent ecosystem. By making Universal Data available across these container types, CodeMeter 9.00 brings advanced cryptographic data handling into closer alignment with this unified licensing architecture.
CodeMeter 9.00 also introduces CmLogger, a new logging service and the first step toward centralized logging across current and future CodeMeter Runtime components. Logging is now enabled by default, with automatic log rotation and more precise timestamping. For vendors and administrators, this means better transparency in support cases, easier diagnostics across distributed environments, and a more modern operational foundation for license management.
Another new option, UserDefinedShare, gives software vendors more flexibility in how licenses are shared and consumed. Vendors can define their own criteria for license sharing, for example based on an external device identifier, a serial number, or a tenant ID in multitenant software environments. This makes it possible to align license consumption more closely with the vendor’s business model and the customer’s actual usage scenario.
Beyond these new capabilities, CodeMeter 9.00 modernizes several operational foundations of CodeMeter Runtime, including internal communication, service handling, logging, and platform-specific administration. These changes are designed to make the runtime environment more robust, transparent, and easier to maintain in modern deployment scenarios.
Expanding Automated Protection and Secure Execution
CodeMeter Protection Suite 11.80 complements the runtime release with major enhancements in software protection. The new version extends Wibu-Systems’ Native Core (NC) technology for stronger, more granular protection of compiled applications, allowing software vendors to protect valuable functions and binaries closer to their native structure. This increases the effort required for reverse engineering, tampering, and unauthorized analysis.
A key innovation is automatic CodeMoving for AxProtector .NET NC. During the analysis of a .NET assembly, suitable functions are identified, evaluated using a Complexity Score, and proposed as candidates for secure execution in a CmDongle or CmCloudContainer. This makes it easier for software vendors to move selected security-critical code into a protected execution environment without having to manually identify every suitable function from scratch.
With AxProtector Windows NC, CodeMeter Protection Suite now also brings NC technology to native Windows binary files, including executables and DLLs on Intel and Arm platforms. This significantly broadens the scope of NC-based protection and makes advanced binary protection available to a wider range of Windows applications, while the expanded AxProtector graphical user interface helps vendors configure these protection scenarios more consistently across platforms.
“CodeMeter 9.00 is more than a version update; it is the beginning of a carefully managed architectural transition,” said Wolfgang Voelker, Principal Product Manager at Wibu-Systems. “The goal is to prepare the CodeMeter ecosystem for future platform and cryptographic requirements while protecting the investments that software vendors have already made in CodeMeter. At the same time, CodeMeter Protection Suite 11.80 gives developers more powerful and more automated ways to protect their applications against piracy, reverse engineering, and manipulation.”
Together, CodeMeter 9.00 and CodeMeter Protection Suite 11.80 reinforce the central value proposition of the CodeMeter ecosystem: durable software protection, flexible licensing, operational transparency, and long-term technology readiness. Software vendors can continue to build on their existing CodeMeter integrations while preparing for future requirements in cryptography, platform diversity, secure execution, and software monetization.
