Patent ID: 7047562

Claim:
A security method for controlling use of an executable application, said method comprising the steps of: procuring a software executable policy enforcement agent which, when invoked, imposes one or more conditions on successful execution, and which, when successfully executed, invokes execution of said executable application; encapsulating said executable application with said policy enforcement agent without changing said executable application, to thereby produce a combined program; substituting said combined program for said executable application, so that said policy enforcement agent executes instead of said executable application program when said executable application is invoked; and one of (a) satisfying said conditions of said control module, whereby said executable application executes, and (b) not satisfying said conditions, whereby said executable application does not execute; wherein said software executable policy enforcement agent includes a header component, and said substituting step includes the step of amending said header component of said policy enforcement agent portion of said combined program to match the characteristics of said combined program.