From: W Kent Starr <elderburn@...>
Date: 2002-11-06T05:53:39+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby encoder

On Tue, 2002-11-05 at 14:33, Carl Youngblood wrote:
> Question:  Has anyone developed a Ruby encoder that would allow me to
> encrypt my Ruby code to avoid revealing database passwords or other such
> things to a potential hacker?
> 
> Thanks,
> Carl
> 
> 

With regard to passwords, you could embed MD5 hashes into your code and
then use MD5.new("password") to check against these.You could also
dispense with embedding and read the MD5 hashed passwords from a
separate file (which I believe is the preferred way to do this.)

As for "other such things") it depends. Md5 is a one-way hashing -- you
can't get the original value back out. This works fine for checking
input against static values, but not for data that has to be re-ouput
into readable form.or for data that goes in and out dynamically.

For such needs you should check out the cryptography library section at
RAA (Ruby Application Archive). You also might want to take a lokk at
Michael Neumann's cryptography page at
http://www.s-direktnet.de/homepages/neumann/crypt/en/

Hope this helps.

Regards,

W. kent Starr