Hard coding: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:11, 29 January 2021

Revision as of 17:54, 26 February 2021

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In the context of run-time extensible [[collaborative development environment]]s such as [[MUD]]s, '''hardcoding''' also refers to developing the core engine of the system responsible for low-level tasks and executing [[Scripting language|scripts]], as opposed to '''softcoding''' which is developing the high-level scripts that get interpreted by the system at [[Execution (computing)|runtime]], with values from external sources, such as [[text files]], [[INI file]]s, preprocessor [[Macro (computer science)|macro]]s, external constants, [[database]]s, [[command-line]] arguments, [[HTTP]] [[Server (computing)|server]] responses, [[configuration file]]s, and [[user input]]. In this case, the term is not pejorative and refers to general development, rather than specifically embedding output data.

== Hardcoding and backdoors ==

Hardcoding credentials is a popular way of creating a [[Backdoor (computing)|backdoor]]. Hardcoded credentials are usually not visible in configuration files or the output of account-enumeration commands and cannot be easily changed or bypassed by users. If discovered, a user might be able to disable such a backdoor by modifying and rebuilding the program from its [[source code]] ([[FLOSS|if source is publicly available]]), [[decompiler|decompiling]], or [[reverse-engineering|reverse-engineering]] [[software]], [[hex editor|directly editing]] the program's [[binary code]], or instituting an integrity check (such as digital signatures, anti-tamper, and [[anti-cheat]]) to prevent the unexpected access, but such actions are often prohibited by a [[EULA]].

==Hardcoding and DRM==