SWFProtection Frequently Asked Questions
General
Why do I need to encrypt my SWF files?
Is SWFProtection another Actionscript Obfuscator?
Will SWFProtection protect my SWF resources (images, sounds, sprites, buttons, movies)?
Is the encrypted SWF file 100% secure?
Usage and Compatibility
After protection, my SWF file does not load external image, SWF and XML files? What should I do?
Why do I need to encrypt my SWF files?
Adobe Flash SWF comes with open format or open specification, that means, it does not have any native protection for its content.
With a piece of Flash Decompiler or SWF Decompiler software, normally just costs about $50, anyone, even without any SWF specification knowledge, can easily crack your Flash SWF file, peek at your Actionscripts, copy your images, sounds and movies. With the decompiler software, they can even convert your Flash SWF to original FLA source file, modify and redistribute it as its their own.
SWFProtection can stop all Flash decompilers, thus helps you protect your valuable design, hard working and intellectual properties from being stolen.
Is SWFProtection another Actionscript Obfuscator?
No.
Before the release of Actionscript 3 and Flash 9, the only way to protect SWF is Actionscript obfuscation. Actionscript obfuscation can protect Actionscripts to some extent, but there are three drawbacks. Firstly, it can only protect Actionscripts, it does nothing with other SWF resources, such as images, sounds, buttons and movies. Secondly, most Actionscript obfuscators work well with Actionscript 2, but for Actionscript 3, the result is not so good. Thirdly, most obfuscators come with a lots of options, you need to figure out and configure the options carefully to avoid ruining your Actionscripts.
SWFProtection uses a new capability of Flash 9 and Actionscript 3, it encapsulates your whole SWF file into a ByteArray based data structure, then encrypts the data and embeds it into a new Flash SWF file. In this way, your SWF file is protected as whole, so all resources including Actionscripts, images, sounds, sprites and movies will be encrypted. SWFProtection also enhances the encryption further with Actionscript obfuscation.
Will SWFProtection protect my SWF resources (images, sounds, sprites, buttons, movies)?
Yes.
SWFProtection uses a new capability of Flash 9 and Actionscript 3, it encapsulates your whole SWF file into a ByteArray based data structure, then encrypts the data and embeds it into a new Flash SWF file. In this way, your SWF file is protected as whole, so all resources including Actionscripts, images, sounds, sprites and movies will be encrypted. SWFProtection also enhances the encryption further with Actionscript obfuscation.
Is the encrypted SWF file 100% secure?
Adobe Flash SWF is a kind of open format file, so theoretically, there is no 100% secure in SWF protection. A cracker, if he or she is smart enough, knowledgeable enough, persistent enough and with time enough, can crack any encryption. What we can do is increasing the difficulties of cracking, so crackers have to stop cracking, because it's beyond their abilities or it's not worth it, due to the time and expense of cracking are much longer and bigger than designing the Flash by themselves.
SWFProtection is a perfect combination of Actionscript obfuscation, data encryption and ByteArray based data embedding technology in Actionscript 3, it gives the best protection for your Flash SWF file, also your valuable design, hard working and intellectual properties from being stolen.
After protection, my SWF file does not load external images/SWFs? What should I do?
After protection, the address of the SWF file will be changed, and the address relative to the SWF file will also be changed. If you are using a relative file address in your Flash design, it may not work anymore.
For example, if you are using a sentence like this:
var myfile = "music.mp3";
Before protection, this file will address to the "music.mp3" in the same folder as your SWF file. But after protection, it will not work. You now need to get the full URL address of your SWF file, and calculate its full URL address.
The ActionScript 3 codes are as following:
function getSWFFilePath()
{
var pathURL:String = stage.loaderInfo.loaderURL;
var suffixPos:int = pathURL.indexOf("/[[DYNAMIC]]/");
var resultURL:String = (suffixPos > 0)? pathURL.substr(0, suffixPos) : pathURL;
suffixPos = resultURL.lastIndexOf("/");
resultURL = (suffixPos > 0) ? resultURL.substr(0, suffixPos) : resultURL;
resultURL = resultURL + "/";
return resultURL;
}
var myfile = getSWFFilePath() + "music.mp3";
The ActionScript 2 codes are as following:
function getSWFFilePath()
{
var pathURL = _root._url;
var suffixPos = pathURL.indexOf("/[[DYNAMIC]]/");
var resultURL = (suffixPos > 0)? pathURL.substr(0, suffixPos) : pathURL;
suffixPos = resultURL.lastIndexOf("/");
resultURL = (suffixPos > 0) ? resultURL.substr(0, suffixPos) : resultURL;
resultURL = resultURL + "/";
return resultURL;
}
var myfile = getSWFFilePath() + "music.mp3";