Protecting Indicator Code

[Erron]

Hi,

First post here. I bookmarked the site based on comments I'd read on the FXAW forum a couple of years ago, but as I'm not terribly technical I haven't been posting here as yet. So, apologies for my first post being a question, but if that's okay here it is: I have an indicator that I am developing as part of a course I will be releasing soon, and I want to protect it from piracy. What's the best way to go about this? A developer I have just spoken to says that the default compiling in the latest versions of Empty4 does a fairly good job, in fact this is what he says:

"The current version of Empty4 does a good job of protecting indicators. They are now compiled, compressed and obfuscated, and maybe even encrypted, and cannot be reverse-engineered easily anymore (there are no programs at present that can do so automatically; so it would take a large amount of tedious, reverse-engineering of disambled code by hand). So it should probably not be necessary to put the code in a DLL. I recommend you confirm that for yourself though. And you might want to use a DLL for contacting an authorization server. Or, to create a key, we could simply hash their Empty4 account number against a private key using a simple program on your webserver or your PC, and in the indicator code hash their Empty4 account number with a public key and check the hash. This would provide good security so long as no-one cracks the hash checker code. MetaQuotes has some kind of indicator market place now too that is supposed to offer secure distribution of indicators."

So is it really necessary to go to any great lengths regarding encryption these days?

Many thanks,

Erron

[renexxxx]

So is it really necessary to go to any great lengths regarding encryption these days?

No, it is not. The encrypted .ex4 code is hard to crack -- and the resulting code would be very hard to read.

Also, you must decide what it is that you want to protect.

If you want to avoid unauthorized use of your indicator, you still have to protect it with a key (weak) or a encrypted challenge/response system. The latter would involve to have an authorization server running somewhere, to service authorization requests. These requests should be encrypted with a private/public key pair.

But, if you just want to avoid people to have a look at your wonderful code or your smart algorithm, but are not worried that legions of people are using it, you can just publish the .ex4.

[Erron]

Thanks, that clarifies the issue for me.

[arzlobnan]

Hey renexxx, is it possible to just add a time factor or link the indicator to an account number? I have seen a video explaining this but in the comments many people had issues so I guess some secrets have been kept hidden
t.ly/oyKz
t.ly/v1Ry

[lemur6666]

So is it really necessary to go to any great lengths regarding encryption these days?

Also, you must decide what it is that you want to protect.

Or alternatively, who you want to protect yourself from.


hey arzlobnan,
Have you modifed that overlaychart indi already ?

[arzlobnan]

So is it really necessary to go to any great lengths regarding encryption these days?

Also, you must decide what it is that you want to protect.

Or alternatively, who you want to protect yourself from.


hey arzlobnan,
Have you modifed that overlaychart indi already ?

LOOOL, it has no relation to that, I have another indicator that I needed to protect