App to hash client's mac address and computer's name and other computer attributes to create unique id

Question

I have been assigned to create a secure server-client access lock, so that server serves only specific clients. It seems I have to create an algorithm - desktop/browser app that runs on client's pc and generates an id, made from hashed client's mac address , computer's name, cpu & motherboard's id and os version. Then the app will send this id to Server to get stored in a binary file, and each time the client requests from server , the app will generate the id and the server will authenticate based on this id. Os is linux. How should I make this app? Should it be a desktop or browser app? How will it trigger every time client makes a request? Are there any ready I could use (haven't found one yet). Any help will be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

It sounds like you are describing a UUID. As you have posted that this is an OSX question, your desktop app could just call:

CFUUIDRef myUUID = CFUUIDCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault);

This can easily be converted to a string, if that is more convenient to send to your server. Other OSes have similar functions for creating UUIDs.