3.3. Building Environments

Command pyarmor runs in build machine to generate obfuscated scripts and all the other required files.

Here list everything related to pyarmor.

Above all it only runs in the supported platforms by supported Python versions.

Command line options, configuration options, plugins, hooks and a few environment variables control how to generate obfuscated scripts and runtime files.

All the command line options and environment variables are described in Man Page

3.3.1. Supported Python versions

Table-1. Supported Python Versions

Python Version

2.7

3.0~3.4

3.5~3.6

3.7~3.10

3.11

3.12+

Remark

pyarmor 8 RFT Mode

No

No

No

Y

Y

N/y

1

pyarmor 8 BCC Mode

No

No

No

Y

Y

N/y

pyarmor 8 others

No

No

No

Y

Y

N/y

pyarmor-7

Y

Y

Y

Y

No

No

3.3.2. Supported platforms

Table-2. Supported Platforms (1)

OS

Windows

Apple

Linux 2

Arch

x86/x86_64

x86_64

arm64

x86/x86_64

aarch64

armv7

armv6

Themida Protection

Y

No

No

No

No

No

No

pyarmor 8 RFT Mode

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

No

pyarmor 8 BCC Mode

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N/y

No

pyarmor 8 others

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

No

pyarmor-7 3

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Table-3. Supported Platforms (2) 4

OS

FreeBSD

Alpine Linux

Android

Arch

x86_64

x86_64

aarch64

x86/x86_64

aarch64

armv7

armv6

pyarmor 8 RFT Mode

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

No

pyarmor 8 BCC Mode

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

No

pyarmor 8 others

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

No

pyarmor-7

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

notes

1

N/y means not yet now, but will be supported in future.

2

This Linux is built with glibc

3

pyarmor-7 also supports more linux arches, refer to Pyarmor 7.x platforms.

4

These platforms are introduced in Pyarmor 8.3

Important

pyarmor-7 is bug fixed Pyarmor 7.x version, it’s same as Pyarmor 7.x, and only works with old license. Do not use it with new license, it may report HTTP 401 error.

3.3.3. Configuration options

There are 3 kinds of configuration files

  • global: an ini file ~/.pyarmor/config/global

  • local: an ini file ./.pyarmor/config

  • private: each module may has one ini file in Local Path. For example, ./.pyarmor/foo.rules is private configuration of module foo

Use command pyarmor cfg to change options in configuration files.

3.3.4. Plugins

New in version 8.2.

Plugin is a Python script used to do some post-build work when generating obfuscated scripts.

Plugin use cases:

  • Additional processing in the output path

  • Fix import statement in the obfuscated script for special cases

  • Add comment to outer key file

  • Rename binary extension pyarmor_runtime suffix to avoid name conflicts

  • In Darwin use install_name_tool to fix extension module pyarmor_runtime couldn’t be loaded if Python is not installed in the standard path

  • In Darwin codesign pyarmor runtime extensions

Plugin script must define attribute __all__ to export plugin name.

Plugin script could be any name.

Plugin script could define one or more plugin classes:

class PluginName
static post_script(ctx, res, source)

This method is optional.

This method is called after each script has been obfuscated

Generally it’s used to patch the obfuscated source, and return patched source

Parameters
  • ctx (Context) – building context

  • res (FileResource) – instance of pyarmor.cli.resource.FileResource

  • source (str) – the source of obfuscated script

static post_build(ctx, inputs, outputs, pack=None)

This method is optional.

This method is called when all the obfuscated scripts and runtime files have been generated by pyarmor gen

Parameters
  • ctx (Context) – building context

  • inputs (list) – all the input paths

  • outputs (list) – all the output paths

  • pack (str) – if not None, it’s an executable file specified by --pack

static post_key(ctx, keyfile, **keyinfo)

This method is optional.

This method is called when outer key has been generated by pyarmor gen key

Parameters
  • ctx (Context) – building context

  • keyfile (str) – path of generated key file

  • keyinfo (dict) – runtime key information

The possible items in the keyinfo:

Key expired

expired epoch or None

Key devices

a list for binding device hardware information or None

Key data

binding data (bytes) or None

Key period

period in seconds or None

static post_runtime(ctx, source, dest, platform)

This method is optional.

This method is called when the runtime extension module pyarmor_runtime.so in the runtime package has been generated by pyarmor gen.

It may be called many times if many platforms are specified in the command line.

Parameters
  • ctx (Context) – building context

  • source (str) – source path of pyarmor extension

  • dest (str) – output path of pyarmor extension

  • platform (str) – standard platform name

To make plugin script work, configure it with script name without extension .py by this way:

$ pyarmor cfg plugins + "script name"

Pyarmor search plugin script in these paths in turn:

Here it’s an example plugin script fooplugin.py

__all__ = ['EchoPlugin']

class EchoPlugin:

    @staticmethod
    def post_runtime(ctx, source, dest, platform):
        print('-------- test fooplugin ----------')
        print('ctx is', ctx)
        print('source is', source)
        print('dest is', dest)
        print('platform is', platform)

Store it to local path .pyarmor/fooplugin.py, and enable it:

$ pyarmor cfg plugins + "fooplugin"

Check it, this plugin information should be printed in the console:

$ pyarmor gen foo.py

Disable this plugin:

$ pyarmor cfg plugins - "fooplugin"

3.3.5. Hooks

New in version 8.2.

Hook is a Python script which is embedded into the obfuscated script, and executed when the obfuscated script is running.

When obfuscating the scripts, Pyarmor searches path hooks in the local path and global path in turn. If there is any same name script exists, it’s called module hook script.

For example, .pyarmor/hooks/foo.py is hook script of foo.py, .pyarmor/hooks/joker.card.py is hook script of joker/card.py.

When generating obfuscate script by this command:

$ pyarmor gen foo.py

.pyarmor/hooks/foo.py will be inserted into the beginning of foo.py.

A hook script is a normal Python script, it could do everything Python could do. And it could use 2 special function __pyarmor__() and __assert_armored__() to do some interesting work.

Note that all the source lines in the hook script are inserted into module level of original script, be careful to avoid name conflicts.

3.3.5.1. Special hook script

New in version 8.3.

If want to do something before obfuscated scripts are executed, it need use a special hook script .pyarmor/hooks/pyarmor_runtime.py, it will be called when initializing Python extension pyarmor_runtime.

First create script .pyarmor/hooks/pyarmor_runtime.py and define all in the hook function bootstrap(), only this function will be called.

bootstrap(user_data)
Parameters

user_data (bytes) – user data in runtime key

Returns

False, quit and raise protection exception Any others, continue to execute the obfuscated scripts.

Raises
  • SystemExit – quit without traceback

  • ohter Exception – quit with traceback

An example script:

def bootstrap(user_data):
    # Import everything in the function, not in the module level
    import sys
    import time
    from struct import calcsize

    print('user data is', user_data)

    # Check platform
    if sys.platform == 'win32' and calcsize('P'.encode()) * 8 == 32:
        raise SystemExit('no support for 32-bit windows')

    # Check debugger in Windows
    if sys.platform == 'win32':
        from ctypes import windll
        if windll.kernel32.IsDebuggerPresent():
            print('found debugger')
            return False

    # In this example, user_data is timestamp
    if time.time() > int(user_data.decode()):
        return False

Check it, first copy this script to .pyarmor/hooks/pyarmor_runtime.py:

$ pyarmor gen --bind-data 12345 foo.py
$ python dist/foo.py

user data is b'12345'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "dist/foo.py", line 2, in <module>
  ...
RuntimeError: unauthorized use of script (1:10325)

3.4. Target Environments

Obfuscated scripts run in target device.

3.4.1. Supported Python versions and platforms

Supported platforms, arches and Python versions are same as Building Environments

3.4.2. Environment variables

A few environment variables are used by obfuscated scripts.

LANG

OS environment variable, used to select runtime error language.

PYARMOR_LANG

It’s used to set language runtime error language.

If it’s set, LANG is ignored.

PYARMOR_RKEY

Set search path for outer key

3.4.3. Supported Third-Party Interpreter

About third-party interpreter, for example Jython, and any embedded Python C/C++ code, only they could work with CPython extension module, they could work with Pyarmor. Check third-party interpreter documentation to make sure this.

A few known issues

  • On Linux, RTLD_GLOBAL must be set as loading libpythonXY.so by dlopen, otherwise obfuscated scripts couldn’t work.

  • Boost::python does not load libpythonXY.so with RTLD_GLOBAL by default, so it will raise error “No PyCode_Type found” as running obfuscated scripts. To solve this problem, try to call the method sys.setdlopenflags(os.RTLD_GLOBAL) as initializing.

  • PyPy could not work with pyarmor, it’s total different from CPython

  • WASM is not supported.

3.4.4. Specialized builtin functions

New in version 8.2.

There are 2 specialized builtin functions, both of them could be used without import in the obfuscated scripts.

Generally they’re used with inline marker or in the hook scripts.

__pyarmor__(arg, kwarg, name, flag)
Parameters
  • name (bytes) – must be b'hdinfo' or b'keyinfo'

  • flag (int) – must be 1

get hdinfo

When name is b'hdinfo', call it to get hardware information.

Parameters
  • arg (int) – query which kind of device

  • kwarg (str) – None or device name

Returns

arg == 0 return the serial number of first harddisk

Returns

arg == 1 return mac address of first network card

Returns

arg == 2 return ipv4 address of first network card

Returns

arg == 3 return device name

Return type

str

Raises

RuntimeError – when something is wrong

For example,

__pyarmor__(0, None, b'hdinfo', 1)
__pyarmor__(1, None, b'hdinfo', 1)

In Linux, kwarg is used to get named network card or named hard disk. For example:

__pyarmor__(0, "/dev/vda2", b'hdinfo', 1)
__pyarmor__(1, "eth2", b'hdinfo', 1)

In Windows, kwarg is used to get all network cards and hard disks. For example:

__pyarmor__(0, "/0", b'hdinfo', 1)    # First disk
__pyarmor__(0, "/1", b'hdinfo', 1)    # Second disk

__pyarmor__(1, "*", b'hdinfo', 1)
__pyarmor__(1, "*", b'hdinfo', 1)

get keyinfo

When name is b'keyinfo', call it to query user data in the runtime key.

Parameters
  • arg (int) – what information to get from runtime key

  • kwarg – always None

Returns

arg == 0 return bind data, no bind data return empty bytes

Return type

Bytes

Returns

arg == 1 return expired epoch, -1 if there is no expired date

Return type

Long

Returns

None if something is wrong

For example:

print('bind data is', __pyarmor__(0, None, b'keyinfo', 1))
print('expired epoch is' __pyarmor__(1, None, b'keyinfo', 1))
__assert_armored__(arg)
Parameters

arg (object) – arg is a module, function or method object

Returns

return arg if arg is obfuscated, otherwise, raise protection error.

For example

m = __import__('abc')
__assert_armored__(m)

def hello(msg):
    print(msg)

__assert_armored__(hello)
hello('abc')