Software Protection Vulnerability Assessment through Kernel Analysis and Relationship Maps

Traditional development efforts leave software vulnerable to reverse engineering, tamper, and access by unauthorized individuals (insider threat). While these threats are not new, advancements in easily hidden removable media such as USB drives and memory cards make them more prevalent. One low-cost technique for software protection is to utilize a kernel module capable of securely decrypting and executing protected software without inhibiting the users’ activity. To some extent, this approach mimics the concepts employed by kernel “rootkits,” or toolkits used by attackers to conceal unauthorized access. Because this approach to software protection is relatively new, few capabilities exist to conduct comprehensive vulnerability analysis. We propose to demonstrate the use of relationship maps as a means of analyzing the strength of these protection capabilities. The maps generated will enable AT-SPI to gather detailed forensics data about the executing software (including the kernel functionality) in a visual form. In addition to beneficial red-team analysis, this technology can be utilized as a security tool to detect and reverse engineer sophisticated kernel rootkits. As our past research has demonstrated, these are highly efficient methods that can be incorporated into both Government and commercial applications with tremendous success.