Editing Obfuscation (software) (section)

==Disadvantages of obfuscation==
* While obfuscation can make reading, writing, and reverse-engineering a program difficult and time-consuming, it will not necessarily make it impossible.<ref>{{cite web|title="Can We Obfuscate Programs?" by Boaz Barak|url=http://www.math.ias.edu/~boaz/Papers/obf_informal.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323104433/http://www.math.ias.edu/~boaz/Papers/obf_informal.html|archive-date=March 23, 2016|access-date=2013-11-25|publisher=Math.ias.edu}}</ref>
* It adds time and complexity to the build process for the developers.
* It can make debugging issues after the software has been obfuscated extremely difficult.
* Once code is no longer maintained, hobbyists may want to maintain the program, add mods, or understand it better. Obfuscation makes it hard for end users to do useful things with the code.
* Certain kinds of obfuscation (i.e. code that isn't just a local binary and downloads mini binaries from a web server as needed) can degrade performance and/or require Internet.

=== Notifying users of obfuscated code ===
Some anti-virus softwares, such as [[AVG AntiVirus]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-21 |title=Blocking website and only way to fix is disabling HTTPS s... {{!}} AVG |url=https://support.avg.com/answers?id=9060N000000gbDLQAY |access-date=2022-02-04 |website=support.avg.com |language=en |archive-date=February 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204155910/https://support.avg.com/answers?id=9060N000000gbDLQAY |url-status=live }}</ref> will also alert their users when they land on a website with code that is manually obfuscated, as one of the purposes of obfuscation can be to hide malicious code. However, some developers may employ code obfuscation for the purpose of reducing file size or increasing security. The average user may not expect their antivirus software to provide alerts about an otherwise harmless piece of code, especially from trusted corporations, so such a feature may actually deter users from using legitimate software.

Mozilla and Google disallow browser extensions containing obfuscated code in their add-ons store.<ref>{{Cite web |last=at 05:01 |first=Thomas Claburn in San Francisco 2 Oct 2018 |title=Google taking action against disguised code in Chrome Web Store |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/02/google_chrome_web_store/ |access-date=2019-11-12 |website=www.theregister.co.uk |language=en |archive-date=November 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112154156/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/02/google_chrome_web_store/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cimpanu |first=Catalin |title=Mozilla announces ban on Firefox extensions containing obfuscated code |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-announces-ban-on-firefox-extensions-containing-obfuscated-code/ |access-date=2019-11-12 |website=ZDNet |language=en |archive-date=March 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200305184837/https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-announces-ban-on-firefox-extensions-containing-obfuscated-code/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Obfuscation and copyleft licenses ===
There has been debate on whether it is illegal to skirt [[copyleft]] [[software license]]s by releasing source code in obfuscated form, such as in cases in which the author is less willing to make the source code available. The issue is addressed in the [[GNU General Public License]] by requiring the "preferred form for making modifications" to be made available.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reasoning behind the "preferred form of the work for making modifications to it" language in the GPL |url=https://lwn.net/Articles/431651/ |access-date=2013-11-25 |publisher=Lwn.net |archive-date=December 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231646/http://lwn.net/Articles/431651/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The GNU website states "Obfuscated 'source code' is not real source code and does not count as source code."<ref>{{cite web |title=What is free software? |url=https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html |access-date=2014-12-18 |publisher=gnu.org |archive-date=October 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014132149/http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html |url-status=live }}</ref>