Oracle PL/SQL Programming, 5th Edition

Protecting Stored Code

Virtually any application I write contains propriety information. If I write my application in PL/SQL and sell it commercially, I really don’t want to let customers (or worse, competitors) see my secrets. Oracle offers a program known as wrap that hides or obfuscates most, if not all, of these secrets.

Note

Some people refer to “wrapping” code as “encrypting” code, but wrapping is not true encryption. If you need to deliver information, such as a password, that really needs to be secure, you should not rely upon this facility. Oracle does provide a way of incorporating true encryption into your own applications using the built-in package DBMS_CRYPTO (or DBMS_OBFUSCATION_TOOLKIT in releases before Oracle Database 10g). Chapter 23 describes encryption and other aspects of PL/SQL application security.

When you wrap PL/SQL source, you convert your readable ASCII text source code into unreadable ASCII text source code. This unreadable code can then be distributed to customers, regional offices, etc., for creation in new database instances. The Oracle database maintains dependencies for this wrapped code as it would for programs compiled from readable text. In short, a wrapped program is treated within the database just as normal PL/SQL programs are treated; the only difference is that prying eyes can’t query the USER_SOURCE data dictionary to extract trade secrets.

Oracle has, for years, provided a wrap executable that performs the obfuscation of your code. Starting ...