[Q] How to make a php script requires key to work?

[cbnoob]

Hey all,

I'm making a script and it's running fine and I want to sell it on the market. However, when the customers buy the script, they will have all the code. Do anyone know how to make scripts requires a kind of activation to work? Just like the SEO pressor or some premium themes?

Thanks a lot.

 

[webwhizz]

good question, i have the same problem, ive made a twitter app php script, i want to sell ,but need to include a license key or it will just be copied,

 

[jazzc]

Google Ioncube

But it will limit your sales as not all hosts support it.

 

[cbnoob]

Thanks jazzc, is there any alternative? The price for those quite high for me.

 

[woofoo]

Theoretically, you can make your script visits some site for a key.

For ex:
make some hash function, that takes a domain name and makes a key (let it be md5 for ex). After your script makes md5 it send it to your db, which checks it against list of sites.

So when you sell, you have to ask your customer for domain, where he gonna use it

 

[mark0v]

I think there are a few scripts available which obfuscate the code, but they just remove line breaks and swap variable names to unintelligible random strings. unless you use ioncube to encode it, someone will be able to reverse engineer it if they want to. there's also zend, but it's been cracked and doesn't work with php 5.3+

 

[roamer]

there's also zend, but it's been cracked and doesn't work with php 5.3+

Zend Guard 5.5 has support for PHP 5.3. Still a relatively expensive solution, unless you have a killer script and plan on making bank out of it.

 

[jazzc]

Theoretically, you can make your script visits some site for a key.

And what stops someone to edit it directly to always return true? That 's where encoders come in to raise the bar. Unfortunately, the only semi-good solution currently is Ioncube.

 

[xpwizard]

Unless you are selling high ticket items ($500+) then getting an encoder is a waste in my books...
Even with Ion, if people want the code, they will pay to have it decoded.

Take it from someone with experience, just focus on coding and providing support. There will always be those who steal your code (I bet you've stolen someones code/work before), but as long as you are good to your customers, then they will be loyal to you in the future.
The only alternative which I use for a few scripts, is sell memberships and host the code yourself.

 

[Zapdos]

Unless you use an encoder like IonCube or Zendguard (Ion would be the best of any choice) then you won't have high chance at securing your script. Even if you use encoding algorithms (rot, gzip, base64 etc) it can be decoded. Even if its nested. I've created my own decoder to loop through evaling everything until it gets to the end code.

Only thing partially reliable is Ioncube. I'm not sure if there's a public decrypter for that, but older encryption schemes with ioncube were reversible.

Long story short, if its digital and you give other people the files, it will never be secure.



On the other hand, if its a service then you can set yourself up as a SaaS provider where they just get the functionality and you handle the servers and coding. They never touch the code. Just the interface.