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New software obfuscation method - possible end to need for SW patents?

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Vurbal:
Wouldn't the need for those patents have to start before it could end?

Besides this wouldn't work for any of the patents I've read (and that's quite a few). "A bunch of vague stuff that's not new... do it with a computer " isn't code. Well it's code for bend over and grab your ankles but it's not computer code.

xtabber:
"You write your software in a nice, reasonable, human-understandable way and then feed that software to our system," Sahai said. "It will output this mathematically transformed piece of software that would be equivalent in functionality, but when you look at it, you would have no idea what it's doing."

If the system works, this just means that the code is not retrievable from the program itself, but, the computer must still be able to follow the instructions in the code, or the program won't be of much use.  That means that the functionality of an "obfuscated" program can still be recreated by capturing what it does when it is executed or interpreted.

A bigger speed bump perhaps, but still just a speed bump.

Renegade:
"You write your software in a nice, reasonable, human-understandable way and then feed that software to our system," Sahai said. "It will output this mathematically transformed piece of software that would be equivalent in functionality, but when you look at it, you would have no idea what it's doing."
-xtabber (August 04, 2013, 06:23 AM)
--- End quote ---

Obfuscation is the lowest form of software protection. It's akin to the kind of cipher that you used to solve in grade 2 with simple letter substitution.

If the system works, this just means that the code is not retrievable from the program itself, but, the computer must still be able to follow the instructions in the code, or the program won't be of much use.  That means that the functionality of an "obfuscated" program can still be recreated by capturing what it does when it is executed or interpreted.

A bigger speed bump perhaps, but still just a speed bump.
-xtabber (August 04, 2013, 06:23 AM)
--- End quote ---

It sounds like you're asking about the dumping problem for decrypted code. Is that right?

xtabber:
It sounds like you're asking about the dumping problem for decrypted code. Is that right?
-Renegade (August 04, 2013, 07:00 AM)
--- End quote ---

I don't believe static approaches like dump analysis are as effective for reverse-engineering as dynamic approaches like tracing program execution steps.  A program's gotta do what a program's gotta do.

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