what are the methods normally used to secure SWF from decompiling or atleast preventing code/keys theft?

As SWFs are notoriously easy to decompile, If I am distribution SWF with secure keys inside or some valuable peace of code, how should I secure it?

EDIT: I think it is very easy to decompile SWF because it is byte coded to SWF and then jitted to run. This same happens with Java compilation a开发者_Go百科nd execution. Does this mean even java codes are not secure enough?

Why, then, Java is far more trusted and reliable and SWF is not considered secure anywhere?

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The short answer is DON'T do that. Even with code obfuscation, or storing data in a byte array, there is NO WAY to prevent someone who is determined (and able) from getting anything and everything from your source.

What type of secure key are you trying to put into your swf? What will it be used for?

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Key theft is probably out. If someone is dedicated to it, they will find a way, despite obfuscation, to get at the key.

Code protection & IP is another matter. Here obfuscation and "encryption" (i.e. whatever is done to prevent decompilers from functioning properly) are valid methods. If your code is sufficiently obfuscated it would be very hard for competitors to steal it or to learn too much about your code's internals. It's just not feasible. Heck, trying to learn someone else's code is hard enough as it is, and so trying to decipher code that looks like loc_12312++; if (loc_23423) loc_4345(); is just not worth anybody's time.

I strongly recommend that if you care about the IP in your application's design and internal workings, you use a tool like SecureSWF to obfuscate the code as much as you can. Unlike with license keys, here the protection isn't as weak as its weakest link - the more you obfuscate the harder you make it to steal your IP.

Edit

My experience with Flex obfuscation tools is that you have to tweak the obfuscation quite a lot to get what you need. Simply telling the obfuscation software to rename all variables, classes, etc. is bound to break your application, unless it's really really simple. So you have to choose which packages and classes to obfuscate and tweak various other parameters in order to get a working application.

Once it's obfuscated though, it's pretty hard to decipher, in my opinion. Here's a sample, just to get a perspective:

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I'd rethink what you're putting in the SWF. But that said, if you see no other options, NitroLM has a SWF encrypter which allows you to encrypt the SWF. Sharify is an alternative service.

In theory you could write your own mechanism for encrypting a SWF and your own "EncryptedSWFLoader." Of course, I suspect that any key in the SWF will most likely be something you need to send back to a server; and having someone sniff the packets--with a tool such as ServiceCapture or Charles--is more likely to be a source of "key leakage" than decrypting the SWF.

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You won't get real security, but to make decompilation a little harder, use a code obfuscation tool, like doSWF, and/or store important data as byte array.

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Edit: Ignore this answer: didnt spot the 'distributing' part **

If run from a webserver you can store your secure key in a text file, and read this text file into the swf from an assets folder (using urlLoader). People wont be able to get to the assets if you dont set public permissions, and the decompiled swf wont have that value (will just have a variable name).

How is it being distributed?