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protect study

  #1 (permalink)
no erocla
turin italy
 
Posts: 96 since May 2013
Thanks Given: 43
Thanks Received: 4

Hi all,

Someone know if there s a way to unlock protect study on MC? How much is efficient this encryption ?

Thank you for any answer

Regards

No erocla

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  #2 (permalink)
 ABCTG   is a Vendor
 
Posts: 2,431 since Apr 2013
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No erocla,

let me first give you my opinion on protection and reverse engineering: Almost any protection can be bypassed or a code that is protected can be reverse engineered. This is usually a question of time and resources (where skill is one resource, too). The best protection always is not giving your code away. Once you give it out you are losing control over it in a way.
If you distribute an indicator in SEF format you might not find anyone willing to pay a skilled guy a couple of weeks/month to get behind your logic. If you give out the holy grail of automated trading there will be someone willing to pay any amount. But then again shame on you for giving it out

Back to the original question, let me give you some comments from the MC forums by MC support staff.

Stan Bokov wrote:

Quoting 
SEF is read-only, which means nobody can see the source code. It's compiled, so it has only "0" and "1". However, if you don't protect with with a password, or a check for UserID or license name, anyone with a MultiCharts can simply import it and use it if someone shares the SEF. They won't be able to see the source code, but they can still see the results. Password protection and checks for ID's limit who can use your read-only file. If you sell it, make sure you enable only IDs of your customer or your group of customers inside the script, and THEN compile as read-only. Then this SEF will only work on the machines of the people that you want to see the results.

There is no bulking up of the script with extra lines - there's no point or necessity to do that.

Dave Masalov wrote:

Quoting 
Everything can be decoded, this is called reverse engineering. Theorethically, it is possible to decode binary code just as every dll file and every application. However, it will require enormous professional and time ressources. It is simply not rational to spend so many efforts to decode a study. Moreover, there is no any open standart. If you decoded one study, it does not mean that you will have the algorithm to decode the other .sef files. You will have to spend exactly the same time and resources to decode the other study, even the identical one.

Bottom line in my opinion is that SEF protection in MC is decent enough for most cases.

Regards,
ABCTG

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  #3 (permalink)
no erocla
turin italy
 
Posts: 96 since May 2013
Thanks Given: 43
Thanks Received: 4



ABCTG View Post
No erocla,

let me first give you my opinion on protection and reverse engineering: Almost any protection can be bypassed or a code that is protected can be reverse engineered. This is usually a question of time and resources (where skill is one resource, too). The best protection always is not giving your code away. Once you give it out you are losing control over it in a way.
If you distribute an indicator in SEF format you might not find anyone willing to pay a skilled guy a couple of weeks/month to get behind your logic. If you give out the holy grail of automated trading there will be someone willing to pay any amount. But then again shame on you for giving it out

Back to the original question, let me give you some comments from the MC forums by MC support staff.

Stan Bokov wrote:


Dave Masalov wrote:


Bottom line in my opinion is that SEF protection in MC is decent enough for most cases.

Regards,
ABCTG

Dear ABCTG,
thank you like always for your answers.

So, maybe, i ve found 5 different code protection:

1 - password
2 - SEF protection
3 - this string:

input:
secret.password("");

if secret.password = "ABCDE" then
begin

{----- put your indicator here -----}

end;

4 - IDs limit ( ??? )
5 - using getUserName function ( ??? )


What about the last 2 points ? I think that i haven t understood well...

Regards and thank you again for your disposability

No Erocla

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  #4 (permalink)
 ABCTG   is a Vendor
 
Posts: 2,431 since Apr 2013
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You are welcome.

GetUserID and GetUserName are two values MC returns and they are individual for a client. You would use it similar to the string you posted under 3.

The User ID is locked to the MC registrar and the computer MC runs on. It will be different if you install your MC on a second machine even if you use the same Registration Name and Registration Code. So a user could only use a code that is locked to a user id on one machine.

The user name is the same even on different machines if the installation was done using the same Registration Name and Registration Code. As MC prevents you from using two copies with realtime data using the same user name at the same time this can be a more convenient way of protection for the user.

Regards,
ABCTG

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  #5 (permalink)
no erocla
turin italy
 
Posts: 96 since May 2013
Thanks Given: 43
Thanks Received: 4

Considering that reverse engineering is always possibile, the only way to fully protect a code is to make disadvantageous the dectyption work, making it more expensive than the content of the code.

So, how much cost approximately a decryption work for a MC code, secured with SEF protection and password ?

Regards
No Erocla.

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  #6 (permalink)
 
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 Jura   is a Vendor
 
Posts: 775 since Apr 2010
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no erocla View Post
So, how much cost approximately a decryption work for a MC code, secured with SEF protection and password ?

That's depends on the level on encryption that's used by MultiCharts with .sef files.

You might be interested in this insightful discussion: How much would it cost in U.S. dollars to brute force a 256 bit key in a year?

To summarise, if MultiCharts uses 256 bit encryption, then there doesn't seem to be enough money in the world to pay for a brute force decryption attempt.

However, hiring a team of programmers/hackers to find a bug in the encryption process that's used by MultiCharts is always an option of course, and something that's much cheaper (relatively speaking). Or hack into your computer or eaves-drop on your internet connection, which is likely more affordable. Or even cheaper would be to travel to your home with a gun and force you to hand over the algorithms.

That's pretty grim; I'm just saying that there are a range of options that someone could employ if they really wanted your algo's. In other words, if you're really really paranoid, then the encryption with SEF files probably need to be the least of your concerns.

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  #7 (permalink)
alex27
Surrey - UK
 
Posts: 41 since Sep 2015
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Spoke to Multicharts.net they said best wat to protect the strategy is in C++ or C#

C#
MultiCharts: Trading Software for Automated Trading and [AUTOLINK]Backtesting[/AUTOLINK] ? View topic - MC.Net indicator referencing COM.DLL

There is no built-in password protection for studies in MultiCharts .Net. The most effective protection is to move the main part of the code into C++ library and then reference this library from C# study.

Makin it into binary code.


What do you guys think in terms of this solution?

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Last Updated on March 14, 2016


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