Watermarking, Tamper-Proofing, and Obfuscation -- Tools for Software Protection

Abstract

We identify three types of attack on the intellectual property contained in software, and three corresponding technical defences. A potent defense against reverse engineering is obfuscation, a process that renders software unintelligible but still functional. A defense against software piracy is watermarking, a process that makes it possible to determine the origin of software. A defense against tampering is tamper-proofing, so that unauthorized modifications to software (for example to remove a watermark) will result in non-functional code. We briefly survey the available technology for each type of defense.