Authors : Muhammad Razeen , Anjum Ali and Noor Muhammad Sheikh
Abstract: Software piracy is a major concern for software industry world wide and the estimated losses due to thispiracy are over $11 billion per year. Different software and hardware based methods have been proposed as a defense against such piracy but availability of mobile code especially in languages like Java and C# has made it easier for pirates to reverse engineer and modify the software protection routine in the software. Recently, software obfuscation, software watermarking and software tamper resistance have emerged as important software protection technologies. Software obfuscation is a process that makes reverse-engineered software object code incomprehensible. Software watermarking is a technique by which the origin of software can be tracked or identified. Tamper resistance is a process that makes sure that unauthorized modifications to the software will make it useless or non functional. In this paper, a survey of major available mechanisms/algorithms for each area is presented, and their applications in new computer security paradigms like digital rights management (DRM) are identified. After that, a roadmap of learning these technology areas is suggested. Then it is shown that software protection will be the most important artifact against piracy in the future using these technologies. Finally, an analysis of major software tools based on these mechanisms/algorithms is presented.
Muhammad Razeen , Anjum Ali and Noor Muhammad Sheikh , 2004. Software Protection: The Last Line of Defense Against Piracy . Asian Journal of Information Technology, 3: 498-507.