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AHKnow*
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 Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:10 am Post subject: How secure is AutoHotkey? |
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Many users have been inquiring about being able to sell AutoHotkey programs and AutoHotkey's license. This brings up the question of how secure is AutoHotkey from reverse engineering attempts? A couple of obvious issues are:
. There is a exe2ahk program. Obviously somebody trying to reverse engineer an AutoHotkey program would use this or modify this for use against an AutoHotkey program.
. AutoHotkey programs are password protected. How strong would this password protection be against a determined cracker? Obviously, with enough computers, computer time, tools, and/or money a cracker will crack nearly any program. I'm curious though, in how fast other think that AutoHotkey programs could be cracked.
What to you think are other ways to secure AutoHotkey programs? |
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Chris
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Joined: 02 Mar 2004
Posts: 10467
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| Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 2:25 pm Post subject: Re: How secure is AutoHotkey? |
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| AHKnow* wrote: | | There is a exe2ahk program. Obviously somebody trying to reverse engineer an AutoHotkey program would use this or modify this for use against an AutoHotkey program. |
Even if exe2ahk were modified, it wouldn't give much of an advantage because you would still have to guess the password of the target script, perhaps via dictionary attack. That's why it's important to choose a long, elaborate password -- one not composed solely of words in the dictionary -- if you're distributing a script whose contents you want to stay secret.
| Quote: | | AutoHotkey programs are password protected. How strong would this password protection be against a determined cracker? |
Since the contents of a script are encrypted and compressed inside the EXE file, it wouldn't be just a matter of using a hex editor or other program to extract the text. But as to how hard it would be for an expert to crack it, I don't know.
| Quote: | | What to you think are other ways to secure AutoHotkey programs? |
By its very nature, all software is vulnerable to reverse engineering. After all, the instructions executed by a program can be examined in memory. With enough patience, such an examination would reveal the true nature of any code, including any trade secrets it employs.
I guess that's one of the arguments for software patents. On the other hand, the current rate of patenting might soon put everything under the sun under the ownership of a megacorp, including every useful gene in our DNA! |
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