Dynamic path-based software watermarking

Abstract

Software watermarking is a tool used to combat software piracy by embedding identifying information into a program. Most existing proposals for software watermarking have the shortcoming that the mark can be destroyed via fairly straightforward semantics-preserving code transformations. This paper introduces path-based watermarking, a new approach to software watermarking based on the dynamic branching behavior of programs. The advantage of this technique is that error-correcting and tamper-proofing techniques can be used to make path-based watermarks resilient against a wide variety of attacks. Experimental results, using both Java bytecode and IA-32 native code, indicate that even relatively large watermarks can be embedded into programs at modest cost.

Exploring ICMetrics to detect abnormal program behaviour on embedded devices

“…Software piracy has enormous economic impact [15], making it important to protect software intellectual property rights. Software watermarks, unique identifier embedded in a protected software to discourage intellectual property theft is presented by Collberg and Thomborson [16].…”

“…The system promises the ability to detect attacks in most application-specific embedded processors. Wang et al [15] proposed a system call dependence graph (SCDG) birthmark software theft detection system. Software birthmarks have been defined as unique characteristics that a program possesses and can be used to identify the program.…”

“…As mentioned above, software birthmarks are a unique characteristic that a program possesses and can be used to identify the program [15]. Similarly, ICMetrics can be defined as a unique characteristic that a program possesses when running on a particular embedded device and can be used to identify the program and hardware.…”

“…The limitations with the use of system calls for program identification [1], [5] have been pointed out in [15] and are more prevalent in embedded systems settings, which typically to not employ operating systems. The mentioned limitations are: 1) Programs with little or no system calls such as programs solely based on arithmetic operation, and 2) Programs which do not have unique system call behaviours may fail to exhibit a birthmark.…”

An Embedding Graph-based Model for Software Watermarking

“…The major software watermarking algorithms currently available are based on several techniques, among which the register allocation, spread-spectrum, opaque predicate, abstract interpretation, dynamic path techniques (see, [1], [5], [10], [11], [14], [15], [16]). …”