[python-win32] Anti-reverse Python-based binaries?

[Lincoln Yeoh]

You can't protect any binary from being reversed either. The CPU has 
to execute it. The antivirus and antimalware people reverse stuff all 
the time[1].

There are only a few good reasons to obfuscate the python code:
1) Embarassing/bad/evil code/comments.
2) you're in the US or similar and want to also add DRM so you 
qualify for DMCA protection (I personally am against the DMCA laws).

But what is your end objective? If it's to make money, most paying 
customers aren't going to look. Competitors could learn stuff, but 
they can't copy stuff exactly or they'd break copyright laws. They 
could copy ideas, but cool ideas are a dime a dozen, the difficult 
parts are elsewhere. Marketing, execution, polish. Even artwork and 
design can be more important, customers are more likely to buy a 
product that looks beautiful on the outside with ugly code inside, 
than one with ugly artwork but beautiful code.

Apple weren't the first company to come up with a touchscreen phone 
or tablet. McDonalds weren't the first company to sell burgers, nor 
do they sell the best burgers, even in the "fast food burger" category.
Starbucks is one of the pioneers in overpriced coffee. I don't think 
being first or not has anything to do with their success.

Regards,
Link.

[1] Easier nowadays with virtual machine technology. The difficulty 
for them would be if a trojan contained innocuous code, but fetched 
commands from a server that are OK but could one day be evil. That 
said I wonder how well they'd do against polymorphic perl viruses ;).


At 02:51 PM 2/9/2012, Jun Koi wrote:

>1) how serious this problem is in your opinion? is it really true that
>it is impossible to protect the binaries from reversing?
>
>2) how efficient are the reversing tools on Python binaries now? would
>be great if somebody can share some experiences on using those tools.
>
>3) if it is true that it is quite trivial to reverse the Python
>binaries, how are you currently protecting your binaries? perhaps with
>some obfuscated tools, making it much harder to reverse?
>
>please share your ideas. thanks so much,
>Jun
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