Intellectual Property Protection using Obfuscation

This project discusses the use of code obfuscation as means of protecting the intellectual property of software. An obfuscation is a behaviour preserving program transformation which aims to make a program harder to understand.

The project consists of three main parts.

1. The first part identifies some of the possible definitions of obfuscation and surveys some of the current obfuscation techniques.
2. The second part considers a report written by University of Applied Sciences of Upper Austria, Hagenberg which discusses a variety of different protection techniques (including obfuscation).
3. The last part reviews the techniques that have been discussed so far. An analysis of some of the reasons why current obfuscators are generally weak (and why some of the better obfuscation techniques have not been implemented) is given. Finally, recommendations are given for how better obfuscators can be created using obfuscation techniques which were mentioned in the survey.

This work has been supported with sponsorship from Siemens AG, CT IC CERT in Munich.