How do i stop Decompilers?

[goldy2006]

Is there a way to encrypt flash so that decompilers can't decompile my SWFs? i'm was just curious if there is any way to protect a flash movie - if anyone knows how i'd really appreciate a reply

[oldnewbie]

What is so special about "your" .swf?

http://www.flashkit.com/board/search...der=descending

[Ask The Geezer]

So far, no. You can try some no cache codes. If they don't have the swf to start with, they can't open it. The problem is, I haven't seen a good no cache code that works all the time.

[goldy2006]

i was planning on making a game w/ a highscore feature.

If someone decompiled it they could get around "playing" the game and just send a highscore. If it were encrypted then the game would be safe, hopefully.

[zaxis]

you can move sensetave actionscript to the server, there is no way it can be decompiled.

[goldy2006]

This Website says something about protecting a flash 6 movie using the ProtectDebug2 command

Does anyone know anything about this or how to use it?

[burakk]

That won't work. (See http://www.buraks.com/unlockswf )

[goldy2006]

Burakk, i must say that you're decompiler as well as other deompilers are causing a lot of frustrtion on my end

I THINK YOU SHOULD CREATE A PROGRAM TO PROTECT .swf files with a password and make it harder to decompile them so that people who really want protection and don't want their swfs to be stolen can get what they want.

It would be for people who keep back-up copies of swfs and really never want their files to be decompiled.

You would profit more if you could create such a program.

[Ask The Geezer]

So you have to have a swf to decompile to start with, right? Where do you get it?

[burakk]

We, as Manitu Group, acknowledge that improper use of decompilers is a problem, and we are trying to figure out what we can do. See my blog post at http://www.asvguy.com/2004/01/the_swf_flash_d.html . We hope to make progress in this regard soon.

[ericlin]

It seems to be a tradition that we should not promote decompiler in this forum. Anyway, if this post is not welcomed, moderator shall delete this post.

I like open-source.

We have flash to create swf. We also have Swish, Ming and many many other less welknown SWF tools to create SWF. I believe such blooming would not happen if SWF is not open format.

If we accept the open-source scheme of SWF, we must accept that nothing in the swf can hide. Decompilers are just tools.

I like open-source.

There are some malicious swf. In the era of flsah 5, swf can format our disc easily. Even now, some bad swf write tons of text or junk with the format of xxxxx?rand=xxxxx to my temporary directory at an interval of seconds, because the author wants to update animation and avoiding casche. Some believe that to prevent "un-authorized playing" they can write a code in the swf so that when the swf gets played, it sends the IP back to the author. I hate such thing. I want to know what those swf do to my computer. If it want my IP, I should be warned. Thanks to decompilers, it is easy to know because I can see the codes.

From studying the swf file format, I know we can over-ride MovieClip.getURL method but not getURL function. I know how AS2 class syntax is converted to AS1 syntax in the swf. I know calling a class setter function will call getter function. Knowing SWF format is to know how Macromedia Flash compiles SWF. Decompilers makes the jobs easier.

For me, patent is more important than copy-right of the codes. An swf showing "mind-reading" is cool. The idea should get awards and respect. It invents some idea that never come to my mind before. To make similar swf ? It is very easy. I dont need to see the original codes. Some interface is really amazing. But, to create a similar one ? Not difficult. I dont need to peek the codes in the swf. Most of the "mentioned" web sties in this forum do not have any protection to prevent decompiler. I believe it is because the pearl is the idea not the code itself.

So, face the era of open-source.

[Ask The Geezer]

Well, the two will never meet. Open source people should stick together and peek into each others files. But there are other people who spend weeks and months building a swf and they don't want anyone peeking into it. If you don't honor that, it's theft, pure and simple.

[goldy2006]

just to get things straight i do not own a decompiler, it's causing trouble in that i have to find a way to protect my swf from gamers who want to send in a fake highscore on my website.

[zaxis]

listen all this talk about decompilers and really you just want to stop people from uploading hi-scores. this is really easy, first get your mind off decompilers, unless your source is located on the server, you will not stop decompilers,

speaking of servers, I'm guessing you are using ASP or PHP to collect hi-scores. the explanation I am going to give you will be for ASP, but it still applies for PHP,

1. change the page the app or game runs on to be a .asp page (or PHP) and write code on it to set a session variable,. in ASP it done with...

<% session("game") = "running" %> 

2. this fix requires no change to the flash movie, I'm assuming it posts the variables to a page that inserts it into a database, well before you do this add code to check for this session variable. if it doesn't exist skip or redirect to a message like "stop decompiling my code beoch" below is an example in ASP

<% if session("game") <> "running" then
response.redirect("loser.asp")
end if %> 

if some one decompiles your code and posts a fake score, they will never be able to create a session variable!

----------------------


hope this helps clear up security


I don't know PHP, but I'm sure someone will clear this up in PHP for you if you ask

[roger_onslow]

Trying to stop people decompiling SWF files is trying to make it so people cannot photocopy books. Maybe you could put something in the pages that went dark in photocopy light so the phtocopy didn't work, but then that would upset people who like to read in bright light. People who make and sell books know that people are going to copy them. People who make and sell software know that it is going to be cracked and pirated. No matter WHAT format, anything you distribute to someone else is crackable/decompilable/disassemblable/stealable etc etc. That is the harsh reality. Sorry.

People have been trying to make programs crack-proof for years and years. No one has really suceeded. Hackers are ingenious and seem able to crack any protection within a couple of days. Something much simpler like a file format is going to be cracked even more easily.

Nothing is secure unless you don't distribute it.

[Ask The Geezer]

If the swf isn't cached, I don't see how they can have a swf file to decompile. I use nocache javascript on my main site page. It seems to work. Is there some other way to get the swf file that I don't know about?

<edit>

While I am still adamant about my views on stealing other peoples work, there may well be a use for decompilers. It's not the software that is evil, it's the people who use it for what it was not intended for who are wrong.

[gSOLO_01]

Originally posted by iaskwhy
If the swf isn't cached, I don't see how they can have a swf file to decompile. I use nocache javascript on my main site page. It seems to work. Is there some other way to get the swf file that I don't know about?

right click, save target as...
http://www.domain.com/movie.swf

[Ask The Geezer]

That was pretty obvious.

Haven't used that in years, so I forgot. Bummer.

Wait a minute, you can't right click my swf. Well, you can, but there is no save target as.

[gSOLO_01]

Originally posted by iaskwhy
Wait a minute, you can't right click my swf. Well, you can, but there is no save target as.

Well, you'd do what I just did. Create a link to the file via a forum or otherwise in a html page.

[Ask The Geezer]

OK, that's assuming the swf is in the root directory. Which in my case it is, and I'm not all that worried about anyone seeing my swf. But if I were to put the swf in a folder, then use the path:

"../mymovie.swf"

in the object code, it wouldn't help much. I suppose you could keep trying different file names in the url, but then I'd be dropping by in a few days with my baseball bat, right after I found you in my stat logs.