Software reverse engineering, the art of pulling programs apart to figure out how they work, is what makes it possible for sophisticated hackers to scour code for exploitable bugs. It’s also what allows those same hackers’ dangerous malware to be deconstructed and neutered. Now a new encryption trick could make both those tasks much, much harder.
At the SyScan conference next month in Singapore, security researcher Jacob Torrey plans to present a new scheme he calls Hardened Anti-Reverse Engineering System, or HARES. Torrey’s method encrypts software code such that it’s only decrypted by the computer’s processor at the last possible moment before the code is executed. This prevents reverse engineering tools from reading the decrypted code as it’s being run. The result is tough-to-crack protection from any hacker who would pirate the software, suss out security flaws that could compromise users, and even in some cases understand its basic functions.
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/crypto-trick-makes-software-nearly-impossible-reverse-engineer/
(Score: 2) by linuxrocks123 on Wednesday February 18 2015, @10:06PM
Yeah, evil PCMCIA cards might be an issue, but, like you said, the ports are becoming very rare. I think they can be disabled similar to FireWire, too, but I'm not 100% positive.