Explain the methods used to protect source code of PL/SQL.

Source codes of PL/SQL V2.2 made available with Oracle 7.2 are protected by implementing the binary wrapper. A stand-alone function does this by transforming the source code of PL/SQL to a portable binary object code. Thus the software can be distributed without the proprietary methods and algorithms getting exposed. Such scripts can still be understood and executed by SQL*DBA and SQL*Plus. The only precaution to be taken is that “decode” command shouldn’t be available.