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DARPA Delving Into the Black Art of Super Secure Software Obfuscation

Posted by samzenpus on from the lock-it-down dept.

coondoggie writes Given enough computer power, desire, brains, and luck, the security of most systems can be broken. But there are cryptographic and algorithmic security techniques, ideas and concepts out there that add a level of algorithmic mystification that could be built into programs that would make them close to unbreakable. That's what the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants for a new program called "Safeware." From DARPA: “The goal of the SafeWare research effort is to drive fundamental advances in the theory of program obfuscation and to develop highly efficient and widely applicable program obfuscation methods with mathematically proven security properties.”

4 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Good luck with that. by jcochran · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The objective of "mathematically proven security properties" via program obfuscation is definitely not achievable. After all, it's a given security principle of "security through obfuscation" is unsupportable. If an adversary is capable of obtaining the executable of a program, they can also reverse engineer that same executable. It may take a lot of effort, but it is always achievable.

    1. Re:Good luck with that. by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Insightful

      OTOH all security is by obscurity, what is a password if not a piece of data that is obscured from most people and supposedly is only known by the one that owns it?

      --
      You can't handle the truth.
    2. Re:Good luck with that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Security through obscurity as a first line of defense is perfectly fine. Now if the obscurity is the entirety of your security then you have problems.

  2. If a compiler can... by carlhaagen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...interpret the obfuscated source code, then why wouldn't a human be able to?