Protecting paid released modules

[LegitSoulja]

I am new to WHMCS, and is interested in making modules for my hosting company, and community. I see alot of modules/addons get leaked due to someone buying, then sharing it afterwards.

I was wondering, what can be done to protect my modules from being leaked? Can I purchase and setup a license manager, and use IonCube? What is suggested. Thanks.

[bear]

Ioncube is one of the only options, but not infallible. Many, including myself, avoid 3rd party addons in general, especially if encrypted, so it's not for everyone. 

[brian!]

18 hours ago, LegitSoulja said:

I was wondering, what can be done to protect my modules from being leaked? Can I purchase and setup a license manager, and use IonCube?

you can make it more difficult for others to share your paid addons, but you can't prevent it - there are potential ways around IonCube and once you've got past that, then removing any licensing coding would be child's play for those who intend to do such things.

[Kian]

As bear said the most common scenario is ionCube with Licensing Addon but there are few things to consider.

First of all this is not the final and definitive solution. You are just making your software harder to be decoded and nullified therefore you should consider to add your own security measures in your software to increase security. I think that every developer have its own "strategies" but obviously no one will describe them with you because well... it's a secret 🙄

The second problem is that the official Licensing Addon module of WHMCS is everything but reliable. If you implement it right out of the box even with the local-key feature your server will be hit by a massive amount of useless requests because the way Licensing Addon work depends on the hosting environment. For example if your client is not allowing base64 you'll be submerged by a licensecheck() on every page load. In conclusion as soon as you purchase Licensing Addon take your time to fix all holes it has.

Lastly don't forget that the best method to stop leaks is SaaS because they can crack a software but they can't crack a service so easily. Another thing is that if you release frequent updates crackers are basically f**ked. I mean if you publish 30 releases per year they are forced to crack your software 30 times per year. Is it really worth it? In they end they spend less with a regular license. Of course this concept is not valid if your software is super-pupular.

9 minutes ago, brian! said:

removing any licensing coding would be child's play for those who intend to do such things

I respectfully disagree. I mean it must not be a simple if(license == 'Active') 😀 It can be a nightmare.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Kian

[brian!]

15 minutes ago, Kian said:

I respectfully disagree. I mean it must not be a simple if(license == 'Active') 😀 It can be a nightmare.

well let's not talk too much about that... it's a frowned upon subject here.

I wouldn't disagree with any of your other points though.