RE: protecting perl script source

Hi

As mentioned a here quite a few times, source filters are far from being a worthy solution to this problem.
In case you're using a windows box, I strongly suggest moving your sensitive code to a dll, and call it from perl using Win32::API.

There's no place like C :-)

Eyal Udassin
WebCohort Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Sergeant [mailto:pete@clueball.com] Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 10:26 AM To: webappsec@securityfocus.com
Subject: Re: protecting perl script source

> I haven't seen anyone mention the the Perl "source filter" capability.

This is because it provides next to no security. Unless you're willing to jump through a huge amount of hoops, it's laughably easy to get the code of any 'Filtered' code - remember, at the end of the day, perl needs to be able to read the source.

It's as simple as: perl -MO=Deparse test.pl

Do you need help?

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> Please note: this is "security through obscurity" again, and as we ALL

> (had
> better) know, this simply isn't good enough for anything but deterring
the
> casual observer. Yes, it is only decoded in memory, but causing a
coredump
> gives you the goodies, and anyone at the console could just grab
memory and
> write it to disk, etc... but, it might be just the ticket, and is
> certainly easy to use! This seems to be one of those little "secrets"
that
> the Perl gurus keep to themselves...heh heh...information wants to be
free!

Information may want to be free, bad advice that leads to false feelings of security wants to be terminated.

> Grab the "decrypt.pm" module from CPAN and read the pod for more

Including the part where it says:

"Also, with the introduction of the Perl Compiler backend modules, and the B::Deparse module in particular, using a Source Filter to hide source code is becoming an increasingly futile exercise."

+Pete Received on Thu Jan 30 04:04:59 2003