/ 
LibZip-0.02
River stage one • 1 direct dependent • 1 total dependent
/ LibZip
Security Advisories (1)
CVE-2003-0107 (2003-03-07)

Buffer overflow in the gzprintf function in zlib 1.1.4, when zlib is compiled without vsnprintf or when long inputs are truncated using vsnprintf, allows attackers to cause a denial of service or possibly execute arbitrary code.

NAME

LibZip - Create very low weight self executables. This is the generator of TinyPerl.

DESCRIPTION

This module will create low weight self executables, that have this features:

Perl library compressed in a lib.zip file.
Zlib compiled inside the executable (binary).
Initialize Package code is compressed in the sources.
Appended code to the executable can be compressed with LZW.
Remove POD from the source of files inside lib.zip.
Can work with UPX to automatically compress the binaries inside lib.zip.

All this featues will generate a Initialize Package of only 30 Kb, and a executable of less than 80Kb (Win32), plus PerlLib.

The main purpose of this module is to have all the Perl enverioment compressed, including the distribution of scripts in a small package. Onde good example is TinyPerl (http://tinyperl.sf.net), that have Perl CORE and a basic library in less than 600Kb, what make possible to install fast Perl in any computer connected to the internet.

Initialize Package

Initialize Package (LibZip + user script) is a LibZip code responsible to load all the LibZip enverioment, enabling the use of a lib.zip file as the Perl library directory. This code will be the 1st thing evaluated when Perl is executed, and only after load all the enverioment the user script starts. This package is what is appended to the Perl binary to create the self executable.

USAGE

The usage of this module is through the libzip script:

OPTIONS:
-allowv        Allow the original Perl option -v in the binary.
-obetter|ob    Compile the file with all the options that can compress better.
-compile|o     Compile the file.
-file|f        Define the 2nd file for the options pack and perlbin.
-keepsrc       Keep sources created for compilation.
-lib|l         Create a lib in this directory.
-lzw           Apply LZW compression to the package
-overwrite     Overwrite already existent files.
-pack|p        Create a package.
-perlbin|pb    Create a binary from a package.
-striplib      Strip POD from libs
-upx           UPX the PerlLib binary.
-upxlib        UPX binaries from the lib.zip
EXAMPLES:
COMPILE:
  libzip -o file.pl
  ## Creates file.exe (combine -pack, -perlbin and -lib autoamtically).

CREATE A PACKAGE FROM SCRIPT:
  libzip.bat -p file.pack -f file.pl
  ## Creates file.pack (used to create the executable) with file.pl inside.

CREATE LIB.ZIP:
  libzip -l lib.zip -f libzip.modules
  ## Create a library (lib.zip) with the modules in the file libzip.modules

CREATE BINATY:
  libzip -perlbin script.pack -f script.exe
  ## Create the binary from the package.

FULL EXAMPLE:

  libzip -o script.pl -allowv -lzw -upx -upxlib -striplib -keepsrc -overwrite

LZW

Can be used to compress the Initialize Package source and the user script, what will save 10Kb+.

PAR

LibZip is not a substitute of PAR, that have much more resources. LibZip has a different architecture, and the main idea of it is to create the smaller Perl distribution as possible.

UPX

UPX is a tool that can be used to compress executables and run them compressed. To enable it with LibZip install the upx binary (will look for upx) in the PATH.

Note that the executable, with your script inside, can't have UPX applied to it, since the size of the file need to be fix.

Source Obfuscation

LibZip doesn't have obfuscation resource for the user script, and I don't have plans to add it, since is very easy to break any obfuscation system if we know what module is in use and the key used to encrypt the sources.

If you want to obfuscate your code against simple users just enable the -lzw option, since a complex obfuscation system won't give you much more obfuscation than this.

SEE ALSO

TinyPerl (http://tinyperl.sf.net).
UPX - Ultimate Packer for eXecutables (http://upx.sf.net)

PAR.

Compress::Zlib, Archive::Zip, Compress::LZW.

Pod::Stripper.

AUTHOR

Graciliano M. P. <gm@virtuasites.com.br>

I will appreciate any type of feedback (include your opinions and/or suggestions). ;-P

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.