Next Generation Software Reverse Engineering Tools

Tools from the proposed program will help the Government maintain the upper hand in the “arms race” between software protection and software attack (reverse engineering). Escalating in the commercial sector, this digital war now threatens national assets. The innovative products help achieve two goals: 1. Perform the most demanding tests conceivable on next-generation software protection technology – to ensure that such protection withstands the worst that third-party, next-generation attack tools can muster. 2. Counter-attack third-party attack tools – to neutralize them preemptively. In Phase I of this program, we developed and demonstrated the foundations for a Reverse Engineering Advancement Lab (REAL)™ . We developed, tested, and delivered tools that successfully attacked protected software – a significant first step in achieving Goal 1 above. We also developed a virtualized version of Linux, called REAL Linux™, that allows the user to (a) run third-party attack tools safely and (b) attack them – together a key step in achieving Goal 2. Phase II of this R&D will yield a more mature, much more powerful REAL tool kit, which comprises a robust decompiler that makes use of (a) a de-obfuscating static disassembler and (b) REAL Linux, which provides stealth dynamic analysis.