Patent ID: 8732843

Claim:
A software validity period changing apparatus, comprising: a password information storage unit configured to store, in a dispersed state, a plurality of password elements generated by decomposing a password to prevent password cracking; an input device; an authentication unit configured to reproduce the password by combining the plurality of password elements stored in the password information storage unit, calculate a first hash value of the password, calculate a second hash value of a password input via the input device, and determine whether or not the first hash value matches the second hash value; and a validity period changing unit configured to decompress an installation package into a plurality of components, the installation package, in which a plurality of compiled components are compressed and combined, comprising a validity period and version information on each of the plurality of components, detect a position of the validity period on the basis of a header in a predetermined component among the plurality of components, if the authentication unit determines that the first hash value matches the second hash value, change the detected validity period to a validity period input via the input device, change the version information, and combine the plurality of components to reproduce the installation package, wherein the plurality of password elements stored in the dispersed state are represented by a header indicating a reference position of the password elements as a reference storage address and by byte arrays as relative addresses, wherein each relative address corresponds to an offset from the reference storage address, and wherein the byte array is defined by an index of an array element, and the index represents the number of bytes from the header indicating the reference position.