Code morphing is an approach used in obfuscating software to protect

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

applications from

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

analysis Analysis (: analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

, modifications, and cracking. This technology protects intermediate level code such as compiled from Java and .NET languages ( Oxygene, C#,

Visual Basic Visual Basic is a name for a family of programming languages from Microsoft. It may refer to: * Visual Basic (.NET), the current version of Visual Basic launched in 2002 which runs on .NET * Visual Basic (classic), the original Visual Basic suppo ...

, etc.) rather than binary

object code In computing, object code or object module is the product of an assembler or compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' ...

. Code morphing breaks up the protected code into several processor commands or small command snippets and replaces them by others, while maintaining the same end result. Thus the protector obfuscates the code at the intermediate level. Code morphing is a multilevel technology containing hundreds of unique code transformation patterns. In addition this technology transforms some intermediate layer commands into

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

commands (like

p-code Bytecode (also called portable code or p-code) is a form of instruction set designed for efficient execution by a software interpreter. Unlike human-readable source code, bytecodes are compact numeric codes, constants, and references (normal ...

). Code morphing does not protect against runtime tracing, which can reveal the execution logic of any protected code. Unlike other code protectors, there is no concept of code

decryption In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plai ...

with this method. Protected code blocks are always in the executable state, and they are executed (interpreted) as transformed code. The original intermediate code is absent to a certain degree, but deobfuscation can still give a clear view of the original code flow. Code morphing is also used to refer to the

just-in-time compilation In computing, just-in-time (JIT) compilation (also dynamic translation or run-time compilations) is compilation (of computer code) during execution of a program (at run time) rather than before execution. This may consist of source code transl ...

technology used in

Transmeta Transmeta Corporation was an American fabless semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California. It developed low power x86 compatible microprocessors based on a VLIW core and a software layer called Code Morphing Software. Code Morphing ...

processors such as the Crusoe and Efficeon to implement the

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

instruction set architecture. Code morphing is often used in obfuscating the

copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...

or other checks that a program makes to determine whether it is a valid, authentic installation, or an unauthorized copy, in order to make the removal of the copy-protection code more difficult than would otherwise be the case.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Code Morphing Software obfuscation Source code Warez

See also

References