ArcGIS Engine applications fail to authorize with an ASR-type (*.asr) license

Description

A bug exists in older copies of ArcGIS Engine software when authorizing ASR-type license files (*.asr) that contain a permanent expiration date. This issue impacts ArcGIS Engine 10.0 (final) through 10.0 SP5. Versions 10.1 (final) and newer are not impacted. Applications of any ArcGIS version using an Esri Secure License File (*.eslf) or other type of authorization are also not impacted.

Deployed applications already authorized with an older ASR file will continue to work, but newly deployed applications using the older ASR files are prone to failing at authorization time, and any ASR (*.asr) file received before February 1, 2018 is at risk of failure.

Note:
ASR-type licenses are not a standard license file, as they are used as an embedded authorization within original equipment manufacturer (OEM) applications built with ArcGIS Engine.

Cause

Date and time calculation of the Permanent date from the ASR file causes the authorization process to fail. This is a bug present within the FlexNet Publisher third-party code shipped within ArcGIS at these older versions.

Workaround

Because the impacted versions of FlexNet Publisher are no longer supported by Flexera, a new ASR file is required. Replacing the old ASR file with a new ASR file in the application resolves the issue.

Effectively, the new files display expiration dates 20 or more years into the future. If ArcGIS Administrator is used as a means of displaying the expiring date of the license file, after applying the new file, a date is displayed (For example, 7-feb-2040) rather than Permanent.

If unsure whether you are affected by this issue, or have questions regarding use of a new ASR file, contact Esri Technical Support for assistance.

To request a new ASR file, contact an Esri Customer Service representative.