Protecting SmileBASIC programs

Please also note that programs and resources (images and sounds) included in published projects are deemed to have been provided by their creators with permission for secondary use by third parties. Please be careful to avoid problems such as infringement of copyright. If a published project is the subject of a takedown notice, SmileBoom Co., Ltd. may delete the relevant project without prior notice.

-SNIP-

You can try as much as you want

You can try as much as you want

Is this a challenge?

You can try as much as you want

Is this a challenge?

It's definitely impossible. In order for SB to run a program, it has to be in one of the program slots. To get code into a slot, you can either load a text file directly, or use PRGSET/PRGINS to insert the code from a string. A text file is easily accessible, and it's very simple to just modify the loader program to replace PRGSET with SAVE or something.

You can try as much as you want

Is this a challenge?

It's definitely impossible. In order for SB to run a program, it has to be in one of the program slots. To get code into a slot, you can either load a text file directly, or use PRGSET/PRGINS to insert the code from a string. A text file is easily accessible, and it's very simple to just modify the loader program to replace PRGSET with SAVE or something.

Exactly. There's nothing you can do to make modification impossible. It sucks but we're stuck with it.

#include <stdio.h>
main(t,_,a)
char
*
a;
{
	return!

0<t?
t<3?

main(-79,-13,a+
main(-87,1-_,
main(-86, 0, a+1 )

+a)):

1,
t<_?
main(t+1, _, a )
:3,

main ( -94, -27+t, a )
&&t == 2 ?_
<13 ?

main ( 2, _+1, "%s %d %d\n" )

:9:16:
t<0?
t<-72?
main( _, t,
"@n'+,#'/*{}w+/w#cdnr/+,{}r/*de}+,/*{*+,/w{%+,/w#q#n+,/#{l,+,/n{n+,/+#n+,/#;\
#q#n+,/+k#;*+,/'r :'d*'3,}{w+K w'K:'+}e#';dq#'l q#'+d'K#!/+k#;\
q#'r}eKK#}w'r}eKK{nl]'/#;#q#n'){)#}w'){){nl]'/+#n';d}rw' i;# ){nl]!/n{n#'; \
r{#w'r nc{nl]'/#{l,+'K {rw' iK{;[{nl]'/w#q#\
\
n'wk nw' iwk{KK{nl]!/w{%'l##w#' i; :{nl]'/*{q#'ld;r'}{nlwb!/*de}'c ;;\
{nl'-{}rw]'/+,}##'*}#nc,',#nw]'/+kd'+e}+;\
#'rdq#w! nr'/ ') }+}{rl#'{n' ')# }'+}##(!!/")
:
t<-50?
_==*a ?
putchar(31[a]):

main(-65,_,a+1)
:
main((*a == '/') + t, _, a + 1 ) 
:

0<t?

main ( 2, 2 , "%s")
:*a=='/'||

main(0,

main(-61,*a, "!ek;dc i@bK'(q)-[w]*%n+r3#l,{}:\nuwloca-O;m .vpbks,fxntdCeghiry")

,a+1);}

You can try as much as you want

Is this a challenge?

It's definitely impossible. In order for SB to run a program, it has to be in one of the program slots. To get code into a slot, you can either load a text file directly, or use PRGSET/PRGINS to insert the code from a string. A text file is easily accessible, and it's very simple to just modify the loader program to replace PRGSET with SAVE or something.

Exactly. There's nothing you can do to make modification impossible. It sucks but we're stuck with it.

I don't think either of you quite understand what an obfuscater is. It has nothing to do with encryption or compression, being able to replace "PRGSET" with "SAVE" is irrelevant. An obfuscater aims to make code unreadable by changing its structure to be incredibly difficult for a human to follow along with. For example, on the Wikipedia page for obfuscation, they have an example of some code that prints out song lyrics in C.

Spoiler

#include <stdio.h>
main(t,_,a)
char
*
a;
{
	return!

0<t?
t<3?

main(-79,-13,a+
main(-87,1-_,
main(-86, 0, a+1 )

+a)):

1,
t<_?
main(t+1, _, a )
:3,

main ( -94, -27+t, a )
&&t == 2 ?_
<13 ?

main ( 2, _+1, "%s %d %d\n" )

:9:16:
t<0?
t<-72?
main( _, t,
"@n'+,#'/*{}w+/w#cdnr/+,{}r/*de}+,/*{*+,/w{%+,/w#q#n+,/#{l,+,/n{n+,/+#n+,/#;\
#q#n+,/+k#;*+,/'r :'d*'3,}{w+K w'K:'+}e#';dq#'l q#'+d'K#!/+k#;\
q#'r}eKK#}w'r}eKK{nl]'/#;#q#n'){)#}w'){){nl]'/+#n';d}rw' i;# ){nl]!/n{n#'; \
r{#w'r nc{nl]'/#{l,+'K {rw' iK{;[{nl]'/w#q#\
\
n'wk nw' iwk{KK{nl]!/w{%'l##w#' i; :{nl]'/*{q#'ld;r'}{nlwb!/*de}'c ;;\
{nl'-{}rw]'/+,}##'*}#nc,',#nw]'/+kd'+e}+;\
#'rdq#w! nr'/ ') }+}{rl#'{n' ')# }'+}##(!!/")
:
t<-50?
_==*a ?
putchar(31[a]):

main(-65,_,a+1)
:
main((*a == '/') + t, _, a + 1 ) 
:

0<t?

main ( 2, 2 , "%s")
:*a=='/'||

main(0,

main(-61,*a, "!ek;dc i@bK'(q)-[w]*%n+r3#l,{}:\nuwloca-O;m .vpbks,fxntdCeghiry")

,a+1);}

The code can be compiled and ran like any C code, yet is completely unreadable to the user. Making the code unreadable also gives you a built-in anti--modification (by that I mean, the inability to modify the program). Even something simple like changing "Hello, World!" code to say "Yello, World!", it's not obvious in the slightest how to make that simple change with a good obfuscater. But anti-modification can be incorporated in its own. You can do this by cleverly weaving the structure of the program into the program itself, thus making any modification of the program destructive to the program itself.

Well, you were quoting this: "In short, you can't do anything about people stealing your code. You can try as much as you want..." Obfuscated code can still be stolen, it's just a lot harder to modify.

Well, you were quoting this: "In short, you can't do anything about people stealing your code. You can try as much as you want..." Obfuscated code can still be stolen, it's just a lot harder to modify.

If you can't modify it how can you steal it? It can't be incorporated into any of your projects because that would require modification, and you can't even copy its structure because you can't read it. The only thing you could do is repost exact copies, which doesn't accomplish anything for the user given all SmileBASIC software is free anyways.

Even obfuscation won't protect your software, as it isn't very difficult for someone with the intelligence to do so to completely reverse your obfuscation to something that makes sense.

It's not impossible to reverse obfuscation. As I said before, It's not impossible to take any modern program, like Horizon Zero Dawn, and run the compiled code through a disassembler. But what's that going to accomplish for you? Good luck trying to steal the code from that. Even obfuscation won't protect your software, as it isn't very difficult for someone with the intelligence to do so to completely reverse your obfuscation to something that makes sense.

You could argue this though... (Straight from the upload warning.) When submitting, you must warrant that your project is your own original work and does not contain any unauthorized 3rd party content, personally identifiable information or inappropriate content such as offensive words, images, or audio. For more details, refer to the official website.

You could argue this though... (Straight from the upload warning.) When submitting, you must warrant that your project is your own original work and does not contain any unauthorized 3rd party content, personally identifiable information or inappropriate content such as offensive words, images, or audio. For more details, refer to the official website.

You could argue this though... (Straight from the upload warning.) When submitting, you must warrant that your project is your own original work and does not contain any unauthorized 3rd party content, personally identifiable information or inappropriate content such as offensive words, images, or audio. For more details, refer to the official website.

Here's SmileBoom's policy on this.

独自ルールを設けた公開キーの頒布について 昨今、独自の利用ルールを設けて公開キーを頒布するケースが報告されており、その対応について混乱が生じているケースも散見されます。 正しく公開キーを取り扱っていただけるよう、改めて、公開キーによって公開されるプログラムなどの取り扱いについて説明いたします。 自作のプログラムなどを他のユーザーに対して公開する場合、公開されるプログラムが二次的に利用されることを許諾することで公開キーが発行されます。 よって、仮に、公開キーの所有者がいかなるルールを設けたとしても、発行された公開キーは第三者による二次利用を許諾されている状態に変わりはなく、その公開キーを利用される利用者（第三者）は、二次利用が許諾されている前提で利用されることに問題はありません。

Regarding Public Keys Distributed with Unique Rules Recently, cases have been reported of public keys being distributed with unique rules for use, and cases have also been seen of confusion resulting from that correspondence. In order to handle public keys correctly, once again, we will explain regarding the handling of programs, etc. published by public key. When publishing your own programs, etc. for other users, a public key is issued when you grant permission for secondary use of your published program. Consequently, for the time being, regardless of any kind of rule the public key's owner sets, it does not change the fact that permission has been granted for secondary use by third parties of the issued public key, and for a user (third party) who uses that public key, there is no problem in using it under the assumption that secondary use is permitted.

I interpreted "steal" to mean "get access to the code and be able to distribute it on your own", rather than actually being able to modify it or use parts in your own program.

I have no interest in protecting SmileBASIC programs, but you people claiming this is impossible has sparked my technical interest. Out of pure technical interest I've been playing around with this problem. I made a password protected program that cannot easily be read or modified but it executes just fine (it's not just obfuscation the program's logic gets reworked such that any modification usually causes it to crash). Not claiming I've solved this problem in the slightest this is my first attempt, but it's an interesting demonstration of the concept. I'm sure if some of you put your minds to it you could crack it.

I interpreted "steal" to mean "get access to the code and be able to distribute it on your own", rather than actually being able to modify it or use parts in your own program.

Actually this could be theoretically prevented as well. Imagine if you have a table of hashed "product keys" inside of a program such that there are 42 keys per user. The unhashed product keys are only held by program owner. A product "license" only has a period of 1 year, and every week a key expires. In order to continue to use the product, you have to login to your account on some website and it provides you with your new license key for the upcoming week. Essentially what this means is that if a person shares a product key, you can revoke the key and it would stop working after a week, even if you copy/paste the program around. Assuming that you have a secure anti-modification program, a person can't simply change the source code to get passed the product key screen, and given you have a secure hashing algorithm, you can't simply read the source code to figure out the product keys. This means that, unless you crack the anti-modification algorithm, you have to use the product key, and you have to go through the external website every week to keep up with it. Again this is just talking what's possible, not that I actually advocate putting product keys on SmileBASIC software.