Encryption with PHP Phar

Question

Is it possible to encrypt/password-protect a Phar archive to enable closed-source software distribution?

What do you want to prevent? Users looking at the source code or users running the application? — cweiske, Oct 18 '11 at 08:32
@cweiske Wanting to have a company purchase closed-source software, get the software (PHAR archive?), and run on their own server, without being able to modify the source, only interact with it (run the code). — MidnightLightning, Oct 27 '11 at 16:58

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 17 '11 at 16:18

Phar supports zip, and zip files can be password-protected. But you would need a monkey for typing in the zip password whenever a request comes in. So no, not useful for closed-source software.

But to make this a somewhat serious answer, no it really doesn't work:

PHP Warning: include(phar://phar.zip): failed to open stream: phar error: Cannot process encrypted zip files in zip-based phar "phar.zip" in php shell code on line 1

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 27 '11 at 18:52

3

Wanting to have a company purchase closed-source software,

In that case, phar alone will not help you. Look for a bytecode compiler like ioncube.

answered Oct 27 '11 at 18:52

cweiske

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Encryption with PHP Phar

2 Answers2