Oracle protecting PL/SQL sourcecode

In Oracle, packages, procedures and functions can be encoded to prevent others reusing the sourcecode. For this you would Obfuscate the sourcecode to an unreadable form with the Wrap function.

More info:

• http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/appdev.102/b14261/wrap.htm

Note:

• you need keep a copy of the original sourcecode, the obfuscated code can not be reused
• it is not possible to use substitution variables like '&variable.' in the sourcecode
• triggers can not be obfuscated
• obfuscated PL/SQL can not be used for debugging

Example package:

-- package specification
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE OBFUSCATE AS

  g_version varchar2(30) := '1.0';

  function get_version return varchar2;  
  procedure set_version(v varchar2);
END;
/

-- package body
CREATE OR REPLACE PACKAGE BODY OBFUSCATE AS

 function get_version return varchar2 AS
 BEGIN
   RETURN g_version;
 END;
 
 procedure set_version(v varchar2) IS
 BEGIN
   -- value remains only for the current session
   g_version:=v;
 END;
END;
/

De package sourcecode can be retrieved with this function, when obfuscated you would see a set of meeningless characters:

select dbms_metadata.get_ddl('PACKAGE_BODY','OBFUSCATE','SCHEMANAME')
  from dual
  ;

Note: the following CREATE_WRAPPED function uses the DBMS_SQL.VARCHAR2A type to enable it to encode larger-than 32Kb sourcecode:

DECLARE
  packagename varchar2(30):='OBFUSCATE';
  schemaname varchar2(30):='SCHEMANAME';
  packagebody CLOB;
  packagebody2a DBMS_SQL.VARCHAR2A;
  checkwrapped number(5);
  i number(5) ;
  len number(11);
BEGIN
  packagebody := dbms_metadata.get_ddl('PACKAGE_BODY',packagename,schemaname);
  checkwrapped := instr(packagebody, '" wrapped');
  IF checkwrapped>0 AND checkwrapped<60 THEN
    raise_application_error(-20000,'Package '||schemaname||'.'||packagename||' already obfuscated');
  ELSE
    i:=1;
    len:=length(packagebody);
    while (i-1)*32000+1<len loop
      packagebody2a(i):=substr(packagebody,(i-1)*32000+1,i*32000);
      i:=i+1;
    end loop;
    DBMS_DDL.CREATE_WRAPPED(packagebody2a,1,packagebody2a.count);
  END IF;
END;
/