[Yr7-10it] re : flash, actionscript and passwords tutorial

[Costello, Rob R]

Depends a bit on how you want to stop - and what you are protecting 

The method you mention is only going to stop the casual user  - probably
enough for an app in a 7-10 context 

But at the back of a flash developers mind should be the fact that there
are a number of relatively inexpensive decompilers that give you back
the original Actionscript from a swf 

(eg Action ScriptViewer www.buraks.com )  

And once you can see the actionscript, you have the name and path of any
password files etc as well  

No way to stop that, as swf is an open / known format

Depending on what you are protecting, you can use an obfuscator to make
it too painful to read (or recompile) decompiled lots of Actionscript
(eg ASO www.genable.com or SWFEncrypt )  (wouldn't work well in this
case though - you can't obfuscate file names or reserved words) 

Its like locking your car. The disincentive of a wheel lock might be
enough to deter most people - but flash is a very vulnerable to master
keys that a real thief might have. 

Cheers 

Rob 
------------------ 

Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 10:35:29 -0700
From: Maggie Iaquinto <iaquinto at ozemail.com.au>
Subject: [Yr7-10it] flash, actionscript and passwords tutorial
To: 7-10 IT List <yr7-10it at edulists.com.au>, vet-it at edulists.com.au
Message-ID: <46C72DE1.6070304 at ozemail.com.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I used a tutorial from 
http://www.myflashresource.com/flash-tutorials/password-protection-loadi
ng-external-text
and modified it.

It shows how to use input text boxes and actionscript to act as a 
gateway to the use of a movie resource. The user must enter the correct 
password to view the movie.

This is posted on the VITTA website for all users.

Please send helpful comments.

Maggie
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