Patent ID: 7958554
Filing Date: 2011-06-07
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for converting a software program, or a software system including multiple programs or applications, to a form in which it is resistant to malware and/or remote hacker protocol attacks, said method comprising the steps of: identifying a communication between two software components within said software program or software system which is potentially vulnerable to such an attack; randomly selecting a tamper-resistant software (TRS) encoding; modifying data representations used in the identified communication by employing the randomly selected TRS encoding, the modification creating a dialect by which the two software components communicate resulting in a second communication actually made between the two software components being ineffectual as a receiving component will not be able to decode said second communication received from a sending component if data representations used in the second communication are in disagreement with the dialect created by the TRS encoding; determining if the identified communication has limited vulnerability to attacks or is vulnerable only to attacks of limited security concern; determining if the identified communication has a high degree of vulnerability to attacks or is vulnerable to attacks of serious security concern; selecting a light-weight, low-overhead TRS encoding if the identified communication has limited vulnerability to attacks or is vulnerable only to attacks of limited security concern; and selecting a heavy-weight, higher-overhead TRS encoding if the identified communication has a high degree of vulnerability to attacks or is vulnerable to attacks of serious security concern.