Summary edit
source protection is the topic of making deployed code inscrutable to usersSee Also edit
Tools edit
- TclApp
- prowrap
- tbcload
- lriobf
- creates starkit where the embedded scripts are encrypted
- procomp
- Molebox encrypted Windows exe
- GE ICE Tcl compiler
- dis2asm
- combination of tcl::unsupported::disassemble and tcl::unsupported::assemble
- TikEn, an encrypter for tclkit starpacks
- Tclkit starpack encrypter (latest 1.4)
Rationale edit
- One may wish to prevent the user of an application from knowing what is being done algorithmically, out of security concerns.
- One may wish to prevent the user from knowing what is being done out of intellectual property concerns
- One may wish to prevent the user from modifying the code out of maintenance support concerns
- One may wish to prevent the user from modifying the code to prevent abuse (for instance, to hopefully limit the amount of cheating one might do in multi-player games)
Description edit
It is possible to combine the various forms of deployment with some form of encryption. Encryption will, of course, incur a performance penalty.The compiling solutions in Tcl Dev Kit/TclPro and the GE ICE Tcl compiler offer decent protection because they actually obfuscate in such a way that not even runtime introspection would reveal your code. The latter is arguably the best, as it translates to compilable C code, but it only works for Tcl 8.0.[Why Java, C, ... aren't really all that hot for security.][Distinguish obfuscation and full-blown encryption.]It is practical to deliver encrypted Tcl-coded applications. Steve Blinkhorn, for example, has written, "Various of my Tclkit-based projects are delivered using blowfish encryption, with some extra attention given to the security of keys. There's nothing especially difficult about doing this with single-file Starpacks, and the actual encryption code is miniscule - I routinely build starkits with multiple versions of a mini-extension for various platforms, with little impact on the overall size. For instance, a version of tclhttpd with some custom code (including encryption) packaged up as a single-file executable with tclkit has 300Kbytes or so to spare for a document tree and still fits on a 3.5" floppy, is in live use now, doesn't crash and supports some quite complex client-server transactions with a Metakit database (the code for which, of course, comes as part of the Tclkit executable).With a two-file (Starkit) solution, it is possible to update client software on remote sites transparently, so far as the user is concerned, and on a user-by-user basis, because the .kit file looks to the executable like a file system."JBR: It doesn't seem possible to deliver a script that can be executed by the Tcl interpreter that cannot be viewed by a determined individual. If the boot strap application code can find and use a decryption key so can the attacker. This is the underlying and inescapable flaw in all encrypted content delivery schemes (DRM).Kroc - It doesn't really matter because Tcl interpreter can runs strings human beings can't understand.The Tcl interpreter runs byte code. Last I checked it can be formatted and understood.
