File Encryption

[livetek]

Hello, can anybody tell me, how I can protect my .php files from being modified? I have developed a small product and do not want anyone using the software to download and modify my code.
Thanks!

[Anon]

Short answer: no more than the usual security any web server should be configured with. Long answer follows...

The PHP code is run on the server and only the results are sent to the browser; the user never gets to see any of the code unless

(a) you forget to put the <? ?> thingies around the code!

(b) the user gains access to the server's filesystem or

(c) the server doesn't know what to do with PHP files and serves them up as plain text or html without running them, or

(d) the server does know to run PHP files, but the PHP code is not in a php file.

Case (d) might need a bit of clarification. Many people have auxiliary files they include() into their main PHP scripts, containing things like database connections, common constants and utility functions. Often, they give them an ".inc" file extension. It's very likely, though, that their web server hasn't been ordered to treat .inc files as anything other than a plain text file. So if someone takes a stab and requests "database.inc" and there is such a file, they'll be given exactly what you don't want them to get!

They might not need to even guess, however, if the server is configured to give a directory listing in the absence of an index.{html/htm/php} file.

[Anon]

If you want, you could put all your php files in one folder, then protect that folder from unauthorized access.

In my case, I use .htaccess file to prevent remote access, just as you would protect hotlinking to the images on your site.

If this sounds like a feasible solution, get more info here:

http://geocities.com/akindele/

Richie.

[livetek]

Hello, thanks for the answer. Probably, I was not clear in mentioning my problem. The software I wish to give to my customers is going to be downloaded by them from my website. Basically, once they have it, they can install it on their servers, at this point of time they get access to my php scripts and can modify the same as required. I want to encrypt all these files from being viewed. Let me know if this is possible in PHP (it is, as Zend had a software worth $2400) & how?
Thanks.