Protecting PHP source codes.

[unikorndesigns]

hey fellow PHP developer,
Is there any way we could protect our PHP source code from being modified after a 3rd person receives the code? I had developed a web application and when i give the source code to another person i want it to be write protected. Currently i have put a security system, if the code is being edited by a third party the system will shut down dropping all the databases but this has a serious flaw. This kind of protection works only with non-developers. Is there any way we can protect this software from being modified? Basically i don't want the credits part, which has my name and other info in it to be modified. right now i have just put a sequence of 0s and 1s as my credits which later on gets decoded for the actual text to be displayed. This also easily traceable and yeah the application is written in OOP!

ANY SUGGESTIONS!

[pritaeas]

http://www.zend.com/en/products/guard/

[edwinhermann]

PHPShadow: http://www.phpshadow.com

This is probably the most cost effective solution because you only need to buy a licence (5 euro) when you encrypt your source code. Once encrypted, your source code will work forever and you don't have to pay them another penny.

[chrishea]

http://www.ioncube.com/

They also have a "pay-as-you-go" option where you can upload the code and compile it for much less than you would pay to buy the whole package.

Any protection can be broken but the "byte-code" approach used by Ioncube and Zend is the most secure. Encryption (like PHPShadow) can be easily broken. There are solutions posted on Forums like this that demonstrate how to do it.

[edwinhermann]

http://www.ioncube.com/

They also have a "pay-as-you-go" option where you can upload the code and compile it for much less than you would pay to buy the whole package.

Any protection can be broken but the "byte-code" approach used by Ioncube and Zend is the most secure. Encryption (like PHPShadow) can be easily broken. There are solutions posted on Forums like this that demonstrate how to do it.

PHPshadow is not easily broken. It uses a proprietary encryption algorithm. Sure, it's not impossible to break, but it's certainly extremely difficult. Most importantly, it has not been cracked yet (ionCube and Zend have been).

Secondly, byte code can be decompiled. Decompiling does not give you back the exact same source code, but it does produce a version of code that does effectively the same thing as the original.