yoda54 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

How does one decompile perl code generated with "perlcc -B" ?

Does "perlcc -B" provide a decent amount of protection?

Thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Decompiling bytecode
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jan 24, 2005 at 17:47 UTC

    Decent amount of protection from what? A casual glance? A newbie programmer? A competent programmer? A dedicated group of hackers? A competitor? The police? A governement? Fire? Flooding? ...

    I suspect it's only protection against the first two (and even then, the newbie programmer might be able to find a tool or recruit some help), but I don't know for sure. I'm just pointing out that security is never absolute, so you always have to decide against what something needs to be protected.

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Re: Decompiling bytecode
by TedYoung (Deacon) on Jan 24, 2005 at 17:46 UTC

    No, no major protection... the bytecode can be decompiled with perl -MO=Deparse file.pl

    It does, however, prevent casual observation of the code.

    Ted Young

    ($$<<$$=>$$<=>$$<=$$>>$$) always returns 1. :-)
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[d/l]
      I can not decompile a complied perlscript with -MO=Deparse
      Can you show how?
      Boris
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Re: Decompiling bytecode
by Fletch (Bishop) on Jan 24, 2005 at 18:32 UTC

    Scientific studies have shown that perlcc does not protect against the transmission of source code, social diseases, or bad karma. Consult your physician before embarking on any exercise program or attempt at source obfuscation. Contents may have settled during shipping.

    Burma Shave.

[reply]

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