The present invention discloses a method and a server for software backend authentication, and a terminal. The method for software backend authentication comprises: MAC filing, an authentication server establishes a filing database of the built-in network card physical address MAC of the terminal in a storage module in advance; MAC resolution and determination, when an authentication request from the terminal is received, a resolution module of the authentication server resolves the physical address of the built-in network card physical address MAC of the terminal, a match query with information in the filing database is performed, and based on the obtained matching result, a response module of the authentication server is instructed to give the terminal a corresponding response instruction; and response instruction, based on the decision of the resolution module, the response module sends the corresponding response instruction to the terminal. By adopting the technical solution of the present invention, conflicts of network card physical addresses MAC of terminals are prevented at the application level, possible software troubleshooting cost is directly reduced to zero, and at the same time, software copyright infringement acts damaging the interests of software vendors are completely eradicated.