A Framework for Software Reverse Engineering Protection

"Military software systems are vulnerable to Information Warfare attacks. If an enemy can gain knowledge of the software, then the software and the systems it runs on can be attacked, either directly or indirectly. One method the enemy may employ isreverse engineering, attempting to recover the program's source code from the binary executable file. Software obfuscation is a defensive information warfare technique that tries to make the cost of reverse engineering prohibitive to the enemy.Obfuscation can also protect software from theft and subsequent reuse. In addition, a software obfuscation capability can enable active offensive information warfare and protection from attacks such as viruses and worms. Architecture TechnologyCorporation proposes the research and development of technologies and products necessary for software obfuscation technology for the Navy. There are three products of this research and development effort. A predictive obfuscation model will allow Navysoftware engineers to anticipate the cost and effectiveness of obfuscating transformations, and to intelligently design obfuscating solutions. Second, a catalog of transformations known from scientific literature and engineering folklore as well asseveral novel transformations will be produced. Finally, a prototype implementation will validate the model and serve as a proof of the concept of object to object obfuscation, as well as a prototype to an automati