code obfuscation python

Anything can be reverse-engineered and modified if there's enough benefit. For example: OP 234 is for source line "# Copyright I wrote this" Basically disabling a whole block of code for what appears to be some obscure reason. first time, from the wrapped bytecode descripted in above section, we Unmatched records missing from spatial left join. That way, the license checks can be performed in the safety of your own server room. How would I steal anything back? It protects Python scripts by the following ways: Obfuscate code object to protect constants and literal strings. As a result, heres the original snippet and the final snippet for comparison: At this point, I suppose we could continue to iterate, but Im not sure that would be the best use of my time. Also, if enough people deem that Python source and opcodes are too visible, it's likely someone will eventually develop at least a simple protection tool for it. This function will restore those obfuscated bytecode between offset 3 and n, and put the original byte-code at offset 0. Question: "is there a good way to protect my family and myself from being murdered by intruders in our sleep?" I believe there was a game like Mount and Blade or something that changed and recompiled their own python interpreter (the original interpreter which i believe is open source) and just changed the OP codes in the OP code table to be different then the standard python OP codes. If we focus on software licensing, I would recommend to take a look at another Stack Overflow answer I wrote here to get some inspiration of how a license key verification system can be constructed. Replace the remaining names with meaningless tokens. This is cruel, and will give you a bad reputation, but it certainly makes your software stop working. See the first comment, for how to do it. the PyInstaller docs for dealing with this concern! There is a comprehensive answer on concealing the python source code, which can be find here. Compiled C code is equally reverse engineer-able as .pyc code, even if it takes a little more know how. Code theft is a myth. As other answers have stated, there really just isn't a way that's any good. Make your product slightly less expensive. As a result, each solution will not be a standalone solution. As with most articles in this series, I was doing some browsing on Google, and I found that some folks had an interest in learning how to obfuscate code in Python. Quite easy to guess Obfuscation through Encryption Those are more advanced and allow extra features such as. Then, give them totally different behavior. How do I concatenate two lists in Python? The obfuscated script is a normal python script. A stripped out executable would be a lot harder to decompile than an interpreted language. But in the end, most companies try to comply to the law (once their reputation is ruined, it's much harder to do business). Is your employer aware that he can "steal" back any ideas that other people get from your code? ): Of course, while this looks harder to read, nothing is really stopping the user from using an IDE to follow each reference. There is no effective way to obfuscate python such that it can not be trivially converted back to human readable. And I know you don't want to hear this, but I'll say it for the benefit of others: 1. But, for this to really work, you have to spend a tremendous amount of time on it to ensure there aren't any loopholes that someone who has a lot of time on their hands can exploit. In this series, students will dive into unique topics such as How to Invert a Dictionary, How to Sum Elements of Two Lists, and How to Check if a File Exists. How do I protect Python code from being read by users? Then, you could generate new names without any worries about clashes. I noticed that I was encountering it almost daily on discord and youtube. Are there real secrets in there (such as a key for symmetric encryption of bank transfers), or are you just being paranoid? For example, 56 is really 28 * 2 or 14 * 2 * 2 or 7 * 2 * 2 * 2. But, the upgrades are also just give-aways so how would they charge for that? What does the "yield" keyword do in Python? There is a tool Pyarmor to obfuscate python scripts by this way. Another aspect is that my employer does not want the code to be read by our customers, fearing that the code may be stolen or at least the "novel ideas". The good point on this, is to demoralize anyone who try to decode functionallity. We can now take that idea and begin to add code that doesnt really do anything: Here, Ive introduce a dead branch. Is there a good way to handle this problem? +1 for stealing ideas back. If it's not removed then the license will be enforced. Python Obfuscation tool Features String, Integer, Float and Boolean Obfuscation Variable Name Obfuscation Import Name Obfuscation Packing Installation git clone https://github.com/PyObfx/PyObfx.git && cd PyObfx/ pip install -r requirements.txt Usage In order to obfuscate a single file: python3 PyObfx.py <file_name> Then, what is the point of all this? (and I'm not trying to be offensive, anyone smart enough to understand what you did could reverse it). That way, it'd sure be difficult to intercept calls to/from python and whatever framework libraries you use. 101: Python Code Obfuscation Using Cython | by Shivkaran Singh | Medium Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. using cxfreeze ( py2exe for linux ) will do the job. Reverse engineering is doable but expensive in most situations. If the point was "copy protection", I don't think its worth the trouble for some "afternoon project". Do the inner-Earth planets actually align with the constellations we see? offset 0. How can I delete a file or folder in Python? When the next release breaks their reverse engineering, there's no point. As always, obfuscating things is much easier than understanding them. In addition to symbol obfuscation might be good idea to unrefactor the code, which makes everything even more confusing if e.g. Obfuscation techniques usually involve comments/docs stripping, name mangling, trash code insertion, and so on, so even if you decompile bytecode, you get not very readable sources. One of the lesser used disciplines in practice is design by contract, and here's yet another attempt of mine to explain the concept. Linux script with logfile that changes names. How important is it really to protect the code? How do I get a substring of a string in Python? After college, he spent about two years writing software for a major engineering company. If newsletters aren't your thing, there are at least 4 other ways you can help grow The Renegade Coder. Python 3.x source code obfuscator for hiding and protecting production code. If you like what you see, consider subscribing to my newsletter. But if the cost of the effort is larger than the cost of my actual product or service, then I have protected my code well enough, because it is more economical to pay me than to steal from me. How do I select rows from a DataFrame based on column values? Embedding Python in Another Application, however some strings of the python code may be found in the compiled file, In case you want an extra bit of obfuscation you could use base64. If you really wanted to go the extra mile, look into a packer or compression utility in order to add more obfuscation. However, in some cases, this level of obfuscation might be deemed sufficient. If you like this sort of content, Id appreciate it if you checked out an article on the different ways you can support the site. So? Or they sold in volume. The whole and proper way, How to ensure my software is not easy to pirate, Let someone run your code, but not see it. In other words, instead of returning a simple junk value, we could construct a complex junk value: Honestly, I could have put anything in the dead block. You must use pyconcrete to process the main.pye script. In other words, u corresponds to 117, t corresponds to 116, f corresponds to 102, and 8 corresponds to 56. That's right, give the code away and have people come back for upgrades and support. The Renegade Coder is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Possible techniques discussed are: This is a valid answer. At any rate, lets have some fun with it: Yep, thats an infinite loop! Here are the six most-used code obfuscation techniques employed today. This is basically un-reversable, compared to .pyc bytecode! For example, here is a small snippet of what obfuscated Python code might look like: Without significant time and effort, it's impossible to . A Python script to obfuscate and protect your code through anti debuggers, junk code and custom encryption. I have looked at software protection in general for my own projects and the general philosophy is that complete protection is impossible. The official version runs as a standalone utility, with the original intended design being that you drop a script into the root of the directory you want to obfuscate, along with a config file to define the details/options you want to employ. Staging Ground Beta 1 Recap, and Reviewers needed for Beta 2, How to convert python(.py) file to unreadable code format. Chances are that they will contact you and so you will learn about the reselling of your work. Obfuscating Python Scripts with PyArmor. Find all the variable names by looking at method signatures and the left-hand-sides of assignments, and all the import aliases. Also, use tips on this site: Top 11 Tips to Develop Unmaintainable Code. Use Cython. Also, this implementation can be done in both Windows and Ubuntu-based OS. You can even set up a provision to email automatically once the license is expired and you can get in touch with your clients using the SMTP services in python. Are these (non open source) files still there at the latest pyarmor? wouldn't the key still be implicit? Even with perfect obfuscation, license check can be removed. If you aren't fan of Cython perhaps you can say why? Base64 is trivial to decode for anyone, so it cannot serve as actual protection and will 'hide' sources only from complete PC illiterates. rev2023.3.17.43323. Can 50% rent be charged? . source code for free! Therefore, it's just a casual legal issue. As a result, treat this like a fun thought experiment. Gets it out there in a huge way and massive market share, then you have a very big customer base for support and addons. This is no obfuscation. How can I check if this airline ticket is genuine? Select a .py file to obfuscate About the web page python obfuscation tool. This is not a bad thing, it is important that several different tools exist for different usages. Depending in who the client is, a simple protection mechanism, combined with a sensible license agreement will be far more effective than any complex licensing/encryption/obfuscation system. Luckily pyarmor has that too. I dont expect any of these methods to be all that practical. So the python source is unmodified but the file extensions of the *.pyc files are different and the op codes don't match to the public python.exe interpreter. Then, I constructed a list from the characters in that new string. Regarding the WingIDE business model: Support is a service, software a product. We might sometimes face a situation where we need to provide code directly to a client for obvious reasons, but by doing so, we will lose control of the code. Let's take a look at the following code. Complete Code Implementation is available at. I got tired of writing good code so I made good code to make bad code. Here are my suggestions: (a) Write the critical pieces of the code as C or C++ libraries and then use SIP or swig to expose the C/C++ APIs to Python namespace. That way, you can roll this directly into a more encompassing packaging script. In addition, you can find some of the snippets in a Jupyter notebook format on GitHub. I've posted in this state because I thought it might be useful. To compile, you could then use something like PyInstaller or py2exe in order to create a stand-alone executable. What it means that enthalpy is converted to velocity? Build your own custom obfuscated python code from a list of obfuscators! The How to Python tutorial series strays from the usual in-depth coding articles by exploring byte-sized problems in Python. Type 'opy ?' or 'python opy.py ?' (without the quotes) on the command line to display a help text and a reference to the licence. How can I remove a key from a Python dictionary? Python Obfuscator with all version support, uses bytecode. You can install it by pip install licensing and then add the following code: You can read more about the way the RSA public key, etc are configured here. As a result, the code is still fairly readable. Does Python have a ternary conditional operator? That said, theres still some work we can do: Here, we were only able to remove three spaces: one between solution_path and encoding, one between data and =, and one between = and solution.readlines(). Oxyry Python Obfuscator - The most reliable python obfuscator in the world Oxyry Python Obfuscator the power to protect your python source code Obfuscate Source x each number represent the occupied column position in the corresponding row. Simply import the pyd file into your main app (app.exe refers to the packaged version of the app). Some have also thought of a self modifying program to make reverse engineering expensive. 1 """The n queens puzzle. Some ideas here and here. Here's my very noob approach for something I'm doing in CircuitPython. A wee bit precaution is sensible. Thank you so much. Remove Superfluous Data. How would I every find out, that they used my code in the first place? One thing we have full control over in code is naming conventions. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Keep in mind that anyone who has the script can decode the text back into human readable python using the same base64.b64decode function. The best way to do this is to first generate a .c file, and then compile it with tcc to a .pyd file If we can introduce dead branches, we can absolutely introduce dead parameters. Refresh the. - software as an service (the best solution to conceal your code in my opinion) Once out of the nest, he pursued a Bachelors in Computer Engineering with a minor in Game Design. In this way you can issue license file with a public key for each customer. If someone A gives B some money to deliver to me unbeknownst to me. Or validate the licence not only on startup but in several other places. But as others already said, if your code is worth it, reverse engineers will succeed in the end. Even if you use a exe-packager like py2exe, the layout of the executable is well-known, and the Python byte-codes are well understood. The necessary keys for decrypting the utils.py at run-time is taken care of by pyarmor and it's present in the pytransform folder, thus making our code completely non-readable to other's eyes. Make them sign a contract and do a license audit if feasible. I am looking for how to hide my Python source code. Offer it as a web service. (You could of course wrap multiple py scripts in bash/batch, but I think a pure python solution is ideal). With that said I was just checking google for python obsfucation and not turning up a lot of anything. We might sometimes face a situation where we need to provide code directly to a client for obvious reasons, but by doing so, we will lose control of the code. To add a bit of chaos, I thought it would be fun to insert a whitespace character: Then, we can call the strip method to remove that extra space. Logical signature inside obfuscated code (e.g. Developed and run in Visual Studio Code, this is a basic python program to obfuscate C/C++ files. After this function returns, the last instruction is to jump to Instead of obfuscating the code, it encrypts it and decrypts at load time. Why not remove those type hints? To me, it looks like a passwordnot a test for odd numbers. Create a simple Latex macro which expands the format to sequence. That way, no Python (byte) code is left and you've done any reasonable amount of obscurification anyone (i.e. In conclusion, if you are a programmer who is looking for a way to protect your code, then you should give Python obfuscator a try. You can use the base64 module to encode strings to stop shoulder surfing, but it's not going to stop someone finding your code if they have access to your files. the pyc content is generated in memory after decryption - the file itself is encrypted. "Miss" as a form of address to a married teacher in Bethan Roberts' "My Policeman", Not worth reverse engineering time (Your software is so good, it makes sense to pay). In particular, we indicated that the input parameter solution_path should be a string. But beware, because that only works for people that are less intelligent than you! And PyArmor works well with py2exe, py2app, PyInstaller, cx_Freeze etc. This is the most comprehensive answer to your question: The only thing you could do is use licensing and a remote backend to complete operations. Obfuscation techniques usually involve comments/docs stripping, name mangling, trash code insertion, and so on, so even if you decompile bytecode, you get not very readable sources. Haven't tried on Django. Suddenly, its unclear what numbers were even working with. Python File Compressor (Makes .py files WAY smaller size) Similar to Pyminifier, uses bytecode and zlib. The comments can be omitted if necessary. Generating random numbers might seem easy at first, but there are definitely some pitfalls. That way, your Python module is pretty monolithic and difficult to chip at with common tools. You could have special OP codes for such lines of code. So if you include the source (with a license that protects you from simple reselling), chances are that they will simply push back changes they made since that will make sure the change is in the next version and they don't have to maintain it. - python source code obfuscators. Regarding that second part, how do you propose, that you as the original developer maintain your code, if you made it terrible to read and deal with purposefully? when did command line applications start using "-h" as a "standard" way to print "help"? One use case where recompiling a modified interpreter may be feasible is where you didn't write the app, the app is big, but you are paid to protect it, such as when you're a dedicated server admin for a financial app. However my bet is that he will object to real development costs versus potential monetary losses. With an extra extension module pytransform, . Nowadays, business models tend to go for selling services instead of products. It will produce a complex encrypted and obfuscated, but fully functional script for you. For instance, could you write a program which could identify Python variables? We will be making use of the python library called pyarmor. [duplicate]. Proper way to declare custom exceptions in modern Python? What are you trying to hide? The reliable only way to protect code is to run it on a server you control and provide your clients with a client which interfaces with that server. You could for example, in a modified interpreter, allow it to check for certain comments or doc strings in your source. . In addition, I thought about making some methods just to pollute the namespace a little bit. That said, I suspect that the variable names will obscure the intent for a little while. Has this facility been completed? Even the firmware on DVD machines has been reverse engineered and the AACS Encryption key exposed. Bytecode can be decompiled into semi-readable sources. I also used pyarmor referenced here, but the pytransform.so or pytransform.dll shared object which is the core of pyarmor is closed source, which was a blocker in my project.