encrypted executables

[Mike Meyer]

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:54:14 -0800 "Jerry Toung" <jrytoung at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 18, 2008 5:39 PM, Dimitry Andric <dimitry at andric.com> wrote:
> > On 2008-02-19 02:18, Jerry Toung wrote:
> > > anybody knows of a tool to encrypt executables under FreeBSD? may be
> > from
> > > the ports?
> > > I am not talking about simple file encryption.
> >
> > Can you elaborate on what you *are* talking about then?  Some
> > security-by-obscurity scheme, perhaps? :)
> I need to encrypt elf binaries. I'd like to make it harder for the bad guy
> to reverse engineer my app.

Basically the DRM problem (only executing your property under
conditions you specify, not under those the end user might want). A
*lot* of money has been spent trying to do this, but nobody has done
it yet. Some very smart people have concluded it can't be done.

That said, you did say "harder", not "impossible". Making it harder is
certainly possible, depending on the conditions. What are they
conditions you want this to work under?

FWIW, the only thing that in this area is to not let them run the
critical parts of your app on their hardware. Put those on your
service, exported via the network, and then give the end user a UI
that talks to that.

     <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.