Ruby Scrambler -- Myth or Marvel?

kevd

"[...] or Marvel"? -- Yeah, sorry... I couldn't find anything better to alliterate with "Myth".

Anyway! A question about the legendary Ruby Scrambler! I've been hunting for this fabled beast for two weeks. I've come across tantalising clues that it does in fact exist -- for example, here:

http://www.sketchucation.com/scf/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2842

and here:

http://groups.google.com/group/Ruby-API/browse_thread/thread/85239d5695a1d162/9cb933f0e4784c6d?lnk=st&q=sketchup+scrambler#9cb933f0e4784c6d

and most promisingly here:

http://download.sketchup.com/sketchuphelp/gsu6_ruby/Docs/Ruby-Sketchup.html#load.

Several of these point to an e-mail address, all of which I've written to, and none of which have bounced (which is auspicious). On the other hand, I've also gotten replies from exactly none of them (which is less auspicious). I've also written to technical support (I have a Pro license), and Sales, also with no response. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret this. Is it just that SketchUp is getting swamped with queries, or do they just provide generally bad (or non-existent) support? Have I maybe stumbled across some X-Filian conspiracy cover-up? Has the Scrambler been eaten by the Legendary Beast of Aaauuuuuuggggggghhhhhh ("It is the rabbit!"), or has it been discontinued? Or perhaps has someone tainted my coffee such that it's causing me to write only vaguely coherent posts to public forums? (Perhaps this isn't mutually exclusive of the mythologicalness of the SketchUp Scrambler though.)

In any event, if anyone has concrete proof that the Scrambler isn't a red herring (for example, if someone's actually using it), I'd very much appreciate hearing about it. As an added bonus, I wouldn't object if you let me know how you went about actually getting it. I promise I won't follow up with: "Can you send me a copy of it?" -- I just want to know if I'm wasting my time e-mailing every SketchUp address that seems promising.

As always, thanks a bundle,

Kevin

ELYSIUM

You know that the only way you can defeat te Legendary Beast of Aaauuuuuuggggggghhhhhh is with the holy grenade. Get one!

http://www.intriguing.com/mp/_pictures/grail/large/HolyGrail173.jpg

juju

This subject has come up before. As you might imagine, the ruby scrambler is there to protect copyrighted ruby scripts. With this in mind, you can imagine that this program will not be readily available to protect it from being reverse engineered and such.

I would imagine that only bona fide developers will have access to this through Google SketchUp offices.

Edson

i have never heard of this and will follow this with interest.

tbd

here is one concrete proof

the email from Ruby docs is the one that gets you the scrambler (which is part of the SDK). btw, why do you need the scrambler ? you can make a scrambler yourself

kevd

In fact, creating my own scrambler was an option I was toying with. I was hoping to avoid that route though, just because it's a little bit outside the scope of what I wanted to do. Still, it's true that it's nonetheless an option.

In any event, thanks kindly to everyone for the confirmation. I'll keep my hopes up that I get an answer from SketchUp themselves about it.

Kevin

Al Hart

I couldn't tell from some of the replies whether you were looking for the Scrambler, or some way to unscramble the scripts.

Assuming you are looking for a scrambler:

Some Ruby developers use a "ruby" method to scramble scripts. This ruby encoding make is hard for a casual user to read your script, but it would only take a good hacker about 30 seconds to un-encrypt it.
The Ruby scrambler from SketchUp works quite well except for one problem. The way they have implemented it, error messages and other tracebacks from inside the script to not report the line numbers properly.

There is a fairly easy way to fix this line number problem which I am prepared to share with other developers. If you get a hold of the scrambler, and want help with the line number problem, contact me directly.

Al Hart

@kevd said:

In fact, creating my own scrambler was an option I was toying with.
Kevin

Most methods of scrambling things yourself are pretty easy for Ruby programmers to hack.

kevd

Hi Al,

You were right: I am indeed trying to get the Scrambler. (I'm not interested in unscrambling scrambled files.)

As for "self-scrambled" files being easy to unscramble by a determined person, I sorta intuitively agree. (That was another reason why I was trying to avoid that path.) For myself in particular (being a complete non-expert at encryption), I'm positive this would be the case.

Fortunately, I seem to have been pointed down the right road to getting the one from SketchUp. Not surprisingly, the documentation by SketchUp itself (http://download.sketchup.com/sketchuphelp/gsu6_ruby/Docs/Ruby-Sketchup.html#load) seems to have been the one with the correct contact info. Hopefully I'll get an answer back!

Thanks again everyone,

Kevin

fpmalard

Hello, I came from another post I have done myself and was able to find out how to scramble the Ruby sources.

There is an application at the root of SketchUp SDK which is called Scrambler.exe.

You just need to run it from command prompt and pass the name of your Ruby file. It will generate a new file with the same name and RBS extension.

I think this is the best way to protect your routines by now.

Best regards,
Fernando.

azuby

I've integrated both methods to the d/Code plugin:

encrypt files with Scrambler.exe
encode code with the other method
Maybe anyone needs it and doesn't like to use the command line. (The scrambler isn't provided with the plugin, you have to get it on your own.)

azuby