First proper design + build for my Obfuscator's homepage

[atomiku]

Hey,

I'm a developer not a designer, I'm sure you know the type. I needed a design for 'Cobra', my online PHP obfuscator, so I thought I'd give it a proper go and follow the current design trends of 2014 to make something that looks clean and modern.

So here it is. [B]Cobra, an online PHP obfuscator / encrypter: [/B][URL]http://obfuscator.uk/[/URL]

Feedback would be appreciated! When I get home from work in a couple of hours I need to make a few tweaks to make it work nicer on a mobile, such as a nice slide-out side menu... and I need to do something with the comparison table. Split the columns into rows on mobile view perhaps.

[B]Cobra [URL="http://obfuscator.uk"]PHP Obfuscator[/URL] demo:[/B]
Before: [URL]http://pastebin.pw/ebdkt6[/URL]
After: [URL]http://pastebin.pw/3g7e7x[/URL]

[IMG]http://obfuscator.uk/site/img/cobralogo.png[/IMG]

[Venturer]

Loving the design man, one thing that bothers me is the "My Account" button, it doesn't seem to fit in so my suggestion is turn the purchase button into the same thing but use green instead of blue for that, would make it more appealing in my opinion.

[BoXHocK]

Great work, but you should fix the [I]unti[/I] typo under [B]Purchase[/B] ;)

[atomiku]

@Venturer: Thanks! It's the shadow underneath the green button, giving it a 3D effect, that seems to throw it off. After I get back tonight I will remove this and make the button flat as I don't really like the idea of giving it a green border instead.

@BoxHocK: Well spotted. I need to remove that part as the October 10% discount is finished now anyway.

[DrTaxi]

[url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/drdaxxy/52b5a5fb9f376ae3fce4/raw/cobra_trace.txt]The size of your snake is impressive, but its venom is not very effective.[/url]
(scroll all the way down)

For those who don't get it, this obfuscator is a run-off-the-mill PHP obfuscator that wraps code in dozens of layers of string manipulation functions and but can be very easily beaten by tracing through all function calls with something like:

<?php
xdebug_start_trace("/path_to_trace_file");
--- obfuscated code ---
xdebug_stop_trace();
?>

You'll still have to execute it so if you have any suspicion that the code is malicious you'll wanna do that on a testing VM, but hey.

[atomiku]

While I completely agree that it's not possible at all to create an effective PHP encrypter, I disagree with your claim that it's not very effective.

See, when software gets popular, it will end up getting hacked/cracked eventually. Pretty much everything does. The people who weren't going to pay for it anyway benefit from this because they get the software for free, while the people who buy software will buy it regardless of whether or not there is a cracked/nulled version online... so the point of encrypting/obfuscating PHP code is to stop the average joe sharing the code with friends, posting it to his forum, sharing it around when he really shouldn't be doing that. Perhaps the PHP code is being obfuscated to stop the user from removing a license check, or perhaps protect the developer's intellectual property.

So the point is, apply the best security you can to slow down the process of it being pirated, it will be cracked/nulled eventually anyway but at least the average joe will have no idea to, lets say, remove the license check when his software license runs out. At least he won't be able to share the copy with his friend who also wants the script. No, his friend will also have to purchase this script.

So why pay 120GBP+ for other obfuscators that require a server-side extension installed, when they can be decrypted easily with one click on websites such as [url]http://decry.pt/?[/url]

At least Cobra can not be decoded/decrypted with the decoding tools available online. This is going to stop more people than IonCube / Source Guardian could. This is why I created Cobra, and this is why I have paying customers willing to purchase it at 80GBP because they also understand that PHP obfuscators aren't perfect, but at least Cobra prevails in the sense that you can't just paste it into a decoder online and get the original code.

DrTaxi, I await your response. Thanks.

[QUOTE=DrTaxi;46406198][url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/drdaxxy/52b5a5fb9f376ae3fce4/raw/cobra_trace.txt]The size of your snake is impressive, but its venom is not very effective.[/url]
(scroll all the way down)

For those who don't get it, this obfuscator is a run-off-the-mill PHP obfuscator that wraps code in dozens of layers of string manipulation functions and but can be very easily beaten by tracing through all function calls with something like:

<?php
xdebug_start_trace("/path_to_trace_file");
--- obfuscated code ---
xdebug_stop_trace();
?>

You'll still have to execute it so if you have any suspicion that the code is malicious you'll wanna do that on a testing VM, but hey.[/QUOTE]

[DrTaxi]

[QUOTE=atomiku;46406844]While I completely agree that it's not possible at all to create an effective PHP encrypter,[/QUOTE]
I'm pretty sure IonCube and the like at least have some irreversible steps to make code remain hard to read after deobfuscation. Yours only strips whitespace and comments.

[quote]
See, when software gets popular, it will end up getting hacked/cracked eventually. Pretty much everything does. The people who weren't going to pay for it anyway benefit from this because they get the software for free, while the people who buy software will buy it regardless of whether or not there is a cracked/nulled version online... so the point of encrypting/obfuscating PHP code is to stop the average joe sharing the code with friends, posting it to his forum, sharing it around when he really shouldn't be doing that.
[/quote]
In other words, not economic reasons.
You still advertise it as a tool for that on the website:
[quote=obfuscator.uk]
Protect your code from theft and plagiarism. For example: sell your WordPress or Magento plugins without worrying about your code being pirated.[/quote]

[quote]So the point is, apply the best security you can to slow down the process of it being pirated, it will be cracked/nulled eventually anyway[/quote]
The people who release nulled scripts tend to have an idea of what they're doing.
You're slowing them down by the time it takes to write "xdebug_start_trace()".

[quote]At least Cobra can not be decoded/decrypted with the decoding tools available online. This is going to stop more people than IonCube / Source Guardian could.[/quote]
I imagine an email to [email][e-mail][/email] with an obfuscated code sample attached would fix that.
Besides, you make a bolder claim on your website:
[quote=obfuscator.uk]Secure
Cobra’s unique algorithm can not yet be decoded.[/quote]
And as mentioned above, decoding ionCubed code will not get you the original code. It will still be hard to read (and thus modify).

[quote]This is why I created Cobra, and this is why I have paying customers willing to purchase it at 80GBP because they also understand that PHP obfuscators aren't perfect, but at least Cobra prevails in the sense that you can't just paste it into a decoder online and get the original code. [/QUOTE]
Are you sure your customers would have made the purchase if they had known how little work is required to reverse Cobra, with very good results?

By the way. The obfuscated sample runs about 25% slower on my system than the unobfuscated one. I'd like to do some better tests with real software, but in any case, ionCube doesn't have this problem.

[atomiku]

@DrTaxi: Yes, you make a very valid point that I really can't argue against in this case - because it's true. I only have 3 customers, they'd probably be disappointed if UnPHP started decoding their scripts, but the demos I post online are different to the actual private algorithm. Otherwise it wouldn't be a private obfuscator, would it?

Anyway, big ups to you etc. Thanks mate!

Regards
atomiku

[editline]4th November 2014[/editline]

@DrTaxi: seems like my obfuscated example paste can already be decoded... oh.

[editline]4th November 2014[/editline]

[B][U]Anyway, let's not derail the thread. The focus here is the design of the website not the obfuscator.[/U][/B]

[zeaga]

[QUOTE=atomiku;46407419][B][U]Anyway, let's not derail the thread. The focus here is the design of the website not the obfuscator.[/U][/B][/QUOTE]

Then why give us a demo of the obfuscator in the thread itself?

[savencode]

[QUOTE=zeaga;46410642]Then why give us a demo of the obfuscator in the thread itself?[/QUOTE]

Why, incase it piques your interest, good sir.

[atomiku]

[QUOTE=zeaga;46410642]Then why give us a demo of the obfuscator in the thread itself?[/QUOTE]

For those who might find it interesting and to provide a little bit of info related to the website. But this thread wasn't supposed to turn into a discussion about obfuscators. In my original post there were 113 words focusing on talking about the front-end design and 6 words + 2 links to show a demo. So it's clear what the focal point is.

So what's your [I]point[/I]? I don't see why you felt the need to post anything. I'll remove the demo links though, to avoid any more confused posts like yours.

[Maqtiah]

[QUOTE=zeaga;46410642]Then why give us a demo of the obfuscator in the thread itself?[/QUOTE]

It's kind of impossible to avoid showing the obfuscator itself when the site he's trying to get feedback on is about that? It makes no sense at all that you and others are derailing the thread from what he really wants. This is still the web development section and the demo is still related to that, he has enough reasoning to post it.

And atomiku, I like the site. It looks a bit cramped at places and I would personally change some things. You should look into making the site responsive that would be awesome. Other than that, the buttons in the form at the bottom should either be aligned left or right instead of in the middle. Looks a bit awkward.

[UKRust]

Not design wise i know as im a PHP Dev myself - but maybe look into setting up the PayPal IPN to take payments and set up the accounts for you (as you do say that it is your preferred method. And for me personally, im not a fan of the "Lets put everything on one page" websites, I do prefer pages, but thats just me. Could also do with some meta data / SEO to help your ranks :D

[atomiku]

@UKRust: Thanks, I plan to sort this out as soon as I get my PayPal account properly sorted. Thanks! SEO is something I'll be looking at, too.

@Moofy: The site was built on a responsive grid system to begin with; but I never got around to sorting out the header and the comparison table. Take a look at it on the mobile now and let me know what you think, I've fixed it all now. Would be nice to get your opinion mate. Shall be aligning the contact buttons to the left or right later. Now you've mentioned about them looking awkward in the center I can't un-see it.

[editline]7th November 2014[/editline]

And one more thing I plan to do later is to sort this copy out... definitely much text, sure I can cut a few paragraphs out.

[UKRust]

I do have an ipn script somewhere...just gotta find it

[Arizard]

[QUOTE=3rd dot point]Portable: Unlike IonCube, [B]Corba[/B] does not require any server-side extensions to be installed![/QUOTE]

[atomiku]

I've fixed typos (especially Corba!), shortened the intro + about text, tweaked the green flat CSS button style, adjusted some paddings/margin and made the header lines a bit darker so they are more noticeable. This should take care of most of feedback that you guys have kindly left for me. I still haven't aligned those contact form buttons yet, though. I think I'm going to make them gray and then align them to the left... but we'll see. I think they might look less awkward in the center if the colour of them just didn't stick out so much.

Any more feedback is welcomed, thanks to everyone who have contributed to improving the website by leaving feedback.