Patent ID: 8234638

Claim:
A method comprising: providing, within a computer system, a registration process having a first transform function that transforms a computer program from an executable form into a locally unique form based on a diversity mechanism associated with the computer system by altering semantics of the computer program, wherein the diversity mechanism differentiates an execution environment associated with the computer system from other computer systems by affecting operational behavior of computer programs attempting to execute on the computer system; and providing a system linker/loader within the computer system, the system linker/loader having a second transform function that transforms the computer program before it is executed, wherein the second transform function is an inverse of the first transform function, wherein application of both the first transform function and the second transformation to the computer program results in the original semantics of the computer program, and wherein application of only the first transform function or only the second transform function to the computer program results in corrupted semantics of the computer program which when executed fail to perform as intended; and responsive to an attempted execution of the computer program, prior to execution of the computer program, transforming, by the system linker/loader, the computer program using the second transform function.