Python obfuscation | Great technique to hide python code | Perfect use of pyarmor

1. What is python obfuscation?
2. Library to obfuscate python code
3. CLI commands to obfuscate python code.
4. Advantages and disadvantages of code obfuscation.
5. Example: pyarmor practical examples to obfuscate the python script.

1. What is python obfuscation?

In simple words, obfuscation is the process of hiding the source code from a human being. Since the source code may contain trade secrets, business information, and basic credentials so the process of hiding this information from humans is known as obfuscation. The major benefit of using obfuscation is that we can secure the source code from attackers in prod.

2. Library to obfuscate python code

Below are the 3 main libraries used to obfuscate the python source code.

1. pyarmor:
   

   About	Pyarmor is a python library that is used to obfuscate python scripts. Using pyarmor we can set the expiry date for the python scripts.
   install	pip install pyarmor
   Url	https://pyarmor.dashingsoft.com/
   PyPI Releases	https://pypi.org/project/pyarmor/
   Is Open Source	NO
   Source Code	Open Source free to use at small scale, License required for enterprise
   Latest Version	pyarmor 7.6.1 (till Nov 22)

2. python-minifier: 
   

   About	Python-minifier is used to transform the source code into its compact version, it can also be used to obfuscate the python source code.
   install	pip install python-minifier
   Url	https://python-minifier.com/
   PyPI Releases	https://pypi.org/project/python-minifier/
   Is Open Source	YES (MIT licence)
   Source Code	https://github.com/dflook/python-minifier/tree/main/src/python_minifier
   Latest Version	Python-minifier 2.7.0 (till Nov 22)

3. pyminifier:
   

   About	Pyminifier is used to transform the source code into its compressed version, it can also be used to obfuscate the python source code.
   install	pip install pyminifier
   Url	http://liftoff.github.io/pyminifier/
   PyPI Releases	https://pypi.org/project/pyminifier/
   Is Open Source	YES
   Source Code	https://github.com/liftoff/pyminifier/tree/master/pyminifier
   Latest Version	pyminifier 2.1

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3. CLI commands to obfuscate python code.

1. pyarmor: Pyarmor is a command line tool, Below are some important commands of pyarmor.
   • command to obfuscate the python script (mypthonscript.py)
     pyarmor obfuscate mypythonscript.py
   • command to create the license key which will be used to attach the python script
     pyarmor licenses –expired 2022-12-31 r001
   • command to obfuscate the python script and attach the license key with expiry date
     pyarmor obfuscate –with-license licenses/r001/license.lic mypythonscript.py
2. python-minifier: This is also a command line tool, but we can also import this as a library to another python script.
   
   • command to minify the python script (mypthonscript.py)
     pyminify mypythonscript.py
3. pyminifier: This is also a command line tool, but we can also import this as a library to another python script.
   • command to obfuscate all function/method names, variables, and classes of the python script (mypthonscript.py)
     pyminify –obfuscate mypythonscript.py
   • command to obfuscate only classes of the python script
     pyminify –obfuscate-classes mypythonscript.py
   • command to obfuscate function and method names only.
     pyminify –obfuscate-functions mypythonscript.py

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4. Advantages and disadvantages of code obfuscation.

Below are the advantages of the code obfuscation

4.1. Advantages:

1. Source code can be distributed securely in an unsafe network.
2. Give some level of surety that the intellectual property is protected against security threats.
3. Make it difficult for source code reverse engineer.
4. It provides an extra layer of security.
5. You can set an expiry date of source code.
6. It Protects against hackers and untrustworthy organizations people.
7. It makes it hard to copy-paste the original codebase.

4.2. Disadvantage:

1. This will impact the code performance.
2. Obfuscation only slows down the process of reverse engineering, it does not prevent it.
3. Obfuscation can be used by attackers to hide malicious code.

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5. Example: pyarmor practical examples to obfuscate the python script:

In this example, I am going to who how to obfuscate the python script. I will follow the below steps to obfuscate the code and I will show you how to execute the obfuscated python code.

Steps:

1. Original code: Below is the original code and how it looks before obfuscating
   
2. Go to the script directory and execute the list command
   
3. Run the below pyarmor command to obfuscate the script
   pyarmor obfuscate remove_duplicate_values.py
   
4. It will create a new dist directory and put the obfuscated script into the dist folder.
   
5. Let us see the obfuscated script
   
6. Now let us run this obfuscated python script from CLI
   
7. The above obfuscated code is running perfectly. Thank you for your reading and support.

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