Question

I’ve placed this script on my localhost but it appears to be malformed (should display an input field for encoding and one for decoding base64.

The author’s site has apparently gone dark. Any ideas how to fix it or get a new one?

<?
// PHP OBFUSCATOR
// (C)2003 Richard Fairthorne -- http://richard.fairthorne.is-a-geek.com
// --------------------------
// Permission is granted to disctibute this file UNMODIFIED from its original
// form. All other rights are reserved.

function splitByNewline($string, $length) {
    while (strlen($string)>0) {
    $newstring.=substr($string, 0, $length) . "\n";
    $string=substr($string, $length);
    }
  return $newstring;
}

echo "<big><b>Free Code Obfuscator (PHP, PERL)</b></big><br>By <a href='http://richard.fairthorne.is-a-geek.com'>Richard Fairthorne</a><hr>";

$b64_input=stripslashes($b64_input);
switch($b64_action) {
    case "perl_encode":
      $output=$b64_input;
         $output=base64_encode($output);
    $output=splitByNewline($output,40);
    $output="#!/usr/bin/perl\nuse MIME::Base64;\neval(decode_base64('\n$output'));";

    $ilength=strlen($b64_input);
    $olength=strlen($output);

    ?>
    <table border=0 width=100%><tr><td valign=top>
    <textarea rows=18 cols=60 name=done><?=$output;?></textarea>
    </td><td valign=top>
    <b>PERL code obfuscated!</b><br><br>

    Your PERL code has been obfuscated. 
    <br><br>
    <font color=maroon>
    Obfuscation-Strength: Normal (Fast code execution)<br>
    Compatibility: 100% Code compatibility<br>
    Input Length: <?=$ilength;?><br>
    Output Length: <b><?=$olength;?></b><br>
    </font>
    <br>
    To use the code, simply cut and paste it in place of the old code. You may need to update the perl path.
    It is important to understand that code obfuscation can act as a deterrant, but is not a replacement
    for encryption.<br><br>

    <a href='?'>Click here</a> to obfuscate another page.
    </td></tr></table>
    <?
  break;
    case "php_encode":
      $output=$b64_input;
         $output=gzdeflate("?>".$output."<?",9);
         $output=base64_encode($output);
    $output=splitByNewline($output,40);
    $output="<? eval(gzinflate(base64_decode('\n$output'))); ?>";

    $ilength=strlen($b64_input);
    $olength=strlen($output);

    ?>
    <table border=0 width=100%><tr><td valign=top>
    <textarea rows=18 cols=60 name=done><?=$output;?></textarea>
    </td><td valign=top>
    <b>PHP code obfuscated!</b><br><br>

    Your PHP code has been obfuscated. 
    <br><br>
    <font color=maroon>
    Obfuscation-Strength: Normal (Fast code execution)<br>
    Compatibility: Zlib Required. 100% Code compatibility<br>
    Input Length: <?=$ilength;?><br>
    Output Length: <b><?=$olength;?></b><br>
    </font>
    <br>
    To use the code, simply cut and paste it in place of the old code.
    It is important to understand that code obfuscation can act as a deterrant, but is not a replacement
    for encryption.<br><br>

    <a href='?'>Click here</a> to obfuscate another page.
    </td></tr></table>
    <?
  break;
    case "php_encode_hi":
      $output=$b64_input;
    for ($b64_counter=0; $b64_counter<10; $b64_counter++) {
          $output=gzdeflate("?>".$output."<?",9);
          $output=base64_encode($output);
      $output="<? eval(gzinflate(base64_decode('$output'))); ?>";
    }
        $output=gzdeflate("?>".$output."<?",9);
        $output=base64_encode($output);
    $output="<? eval(gzinflate(base64_decode('\n$output'))); ?>";

    $ilength=strlen($b64_input);
    $olength=strlen($output);

    ?>

    <table border=0 width=100%><tr><td valign=top>
    <textarea rows=18 cols=60 name=done><?=$output;?></textarea>
    </td><td valign=top>
    <b>PHP code obfuscated!</b><br><br>

    Your PHP code has been obfuscated. 
    <br><br>
    <font color=maroon>
    Obfuscation-Strength: Trecherous (Best Protection)<br>
    Compatibility: Zlib Required. 100% Code Compatibility.<br>
    Input Length: <?=$ilength;?><br>
    Output Length: <b><?=$olength;?></b><br>
    </font>
    <br>
    To use the code, simply cut and paste it in place of the old code.
    It is important to understand that code obfuscation can act as a deterrant, but is not a replacement
    for encryption.<br><br>

    <a href='?'>Click here</a> to obfuscate another page.
    </td></tr></table>
    <?
  break;
  // case "decode":
  //     $output=htmlentities(base64_decode($b64_input),ENT_QUOTES);
  // break;
  default:
    ?>
    <table border=0 width=100%><tr><td valign=top>
    <form method=post>
    <textarea  name=b64_input cols=60 rows=16></textarea><br>
    <SELECT name=b64_action>
    <OPTION value='php_encode'>PHP - Normal Strength - Compressed</OPTION>
    <OPTION value='php_encode_hi'>PHP - Trecherous Strength - Compressed</OPTION>
    <OPTION value='perl_encode'>PERL - Normal Strength</OPTION>
    </SELECT>
    <input type=submit name=submit value='obfuscate'>
    <!-- <input type=submit name=b64_action value=decode> -->
    </form>
    </td><td valign=top>
    <b>Free Code obfuscator</b><br><br>

    If you would like a quick way to hide your php code from prying eyes, try this PHP code obfuscator.<br><br>Copy an entire PHP page, into the obfuscator, and it will return a code that also works on any PHP server, but is not human readable.<br><br>

        With code 5k or bigger, you may notice that the obfuscated code is smaller than the original code. You can thank me later.
    </td></tr></table>
    <?  
  break;
}
?>

Answer 1

Change all <? to <?php.

Then break its reliance on register_globals with the following:

// Change this
//$b64_input=stripslashes($b64_input);
// To:
$b64_input=isset($_POST['b64_input']) ? stripslashes($_POST['b64_input']) : "";

// And below it, add:
$b64_action = isset($_POST['b64_action']) ? $_POST['b64_action'] : "";

Also, fix these short open tag dependencies:

Ln 43 - 44:
Input Length: <?php echo $ilength;?><br>
Output Length: <b><?php echo $olength;?></b><br>

Ln 67: <textarea rows=18 cols=60 name=done><?php echo $output;?></textarea>

Ln 105:  <textarea rows=18 cols=60 name=done><?php echo $output;?></textarea>

Ln 114 - 115:
Input Length: <?php echo $ilength;?><br>
Output Length: <b><?php echo $olength;?></b><br>

With the above changes, I was able to successfully obfuscate the obfuscator code.