SGER: NMI: An Initial Study on Software Protection Techniques

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

The proposal is for an exploratory project to study and prototype software protection techniques designed to prevent attacks on input programs by reverse engineering. A comprehensive study will address the effectiveness of debugger and emulator detection mechanisms. Techniques will be developed to counter program slicing analysis and a prototype will be built to enable refinement and study of new software protection methods. This work directly addresses the enforcement of content access rights in Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems. The major goals of the project are: to study and develop new software protection algorithms that are effective enough to defeat feasible reverse engineering efforts to crack protected programs; and prototype these algorithms in an operational system that can then be used to measure performance and effectiveness.