PhpCodeBuster - An Open Source PHP Obfuscator

This is the project page for PhpCodeBuster, a freely available and open source PHP class to protect your PHP code. Using PhpCodeBuster, your PHP scripts will get obfuscated, meaning that the code is changed in such a way that it is very hard te reverse engineer it into a understandable format.

About the author

I have a normal job in the IT business and developing PHP scripts is mostly hobby. I sometimes like to publish the fruits of my hobby for everone else to enjoy, but developing quality software like this will cost more time than I normally have.
If you use my software, I would like you to show me your appreciation by funding my hobby with donations. Any donation will do and it is no no obligation to donate. But if you want, please hit the button...

Description

There are several ways to protect PHP code. One way to achieve protection is to compile the code into a binary format. This will only function correctly if the webserver that uses this code has the necessary additional, non-standard, extensions.

PhpCodeBuster uses another method. It produces PHP code with normal syntax, unreadable by human eyes, but it will function correctly on any normal webserver.

Currently, PhpCodeBuster is very much a work in progress. As with any other obfuscator, based on the cleanliness of the code or the use of specific PHP features, it may produce unexpected results or even disfunctional PHP code. PhpCodeBuster will get smarter in time as it developes.

A nice feature of PhpCodeBuster is the availability of debug settings. By using the debug settings, you can check the obfuscated results while they are still very much readable and make necessary changes to the original code. There are a number of programming guidelines in the README that ships with the package.

The latest version is PhpCodeBuster v0.92 and it can be downloaded HERE

You can check it out with samples of your own PHP code using this example form. The example form shows you the basic functionality:

• Big Bust To obfuscate the PHP code completely so that you can publish it
• Debugable Bust Obfuscate the PHP code so that it is still very much readable, but equally affected by the obfuscation process as it would be normally.

DISCLAIMER

PhpCodeBuster is (C) Copyright by Martijn Loots, 2005. PhpCodeBuster is licensed under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL), version 2 or higher. Here are details on GPL if you like the reading material.

Obfuscating PHP code is NO 100% guarantee against theft or abuse of your code. Obfuscation just makes it very hard and time consuming te reverse engineer the PHP code, but it is still possible if you have the time and the motivation to do just that. In my opinion, if you are really worried about theft or abuse of your code, it is probably better to use another language than PHP for your project.