Program Security - Fingerprinting Versus Piracy

Utilisation of a watermark on the delivery medium takes aim at making it very challenging to reproduce that mark into an illegitimate copy. This is a popular mode of realising a sheltering mechanism against piracy for digital media. Verification code checks - at runtime - if the program is being run from the primary delivery medium. If such a mark is broken or can not be picked up, the application's execution is stopped. Corresponding methods were also explored for software sheltering, it is the so-called software protection through watermarking. Basic watermarking systems put up two subroutines named implement - or embed - and extract. To output a watermarked software, the original software and a confidential key are demands as input for the implement routine. The extract routine outputs the watermark data from the watermarked software via input of the right private key. We will consider more about this further on.

Copyright infraction is not a limited trouble in the software industry. The legitimate holder of the copyright often differs from the factual programmer of the product. Also, methods - e.g. watermarking - enforcing the utilisation of a software fitting to the according license terms are exigent because such measures are associated to resolving the doubts of online selling.

Java bytecode and Microsoft Intermediate Language have known a stable rise in practice in the recent decennium. These formats appear nearly like code. Their decompilation into the primary source is virtually simple. Accordingly, this lets unethical developers to steal a rival's secrets and even to use a competitor's code in the own application. In the comparable way, these formats are effortlessly pirated. For the developer, such process can accomplish a strong reduction in production time. Or perhaps you believe all coders are pure as gold?

So, for the reverser, it's easy to get around a registration strategy in these formats. Yes, it is often as uncomplicated as to convert one individual byte in the application to make it dance the rumba. Now, if a cracked program is sold or simply shared for free, it is mostly extremely problematical to hunt it down to the cracker. And without special techniques, it is pretty challenging to prove in court a cheating rival has taken advantage of a stolen trade secret.

Software watermarking implements a unique identifier in the software data. This action is corresponding to the techniques used in digital media watermarking where a unique identifier is included into the data from video, audio or images so that it can be recollected for intentions of validation of origin, but without corrupting the media.

So, it does not shape digital media in a style that it turns observant to users when overwriting reasonable amounts of data. Software watermarking expects specific techniques though because this requires a watermarking method not spoiling the normal workflow of the software.

So, software watermarking implements a unique identifier - called the watermark - into a software. If the identifier uniquely institutes the writer of the program, then the identifier is a copyright notice. However, if the identifier uniquely names the juristic purchaser of the software, then the watermark is a fingerprint.

The usage of a hidden key is an essential aspect of watermarking. The watermark is combined into the application through the utilisation of the secret key. In fact, this processing is making a - though slightly - otherwise application.

Still, the trouble remains: a watermark can prove property but it can not guide to the actual culprit of the criminal action. It requires a fingerprint to add such characteristics to the watermark. In fact, the fingerprint is a watermark controlling data from the individual customer.

Static watermarks are stashed away in the application binary itself. Dynamic watermarks are produced at runtime and stored in application memory. Static software watermarking is utilised for a longer time. The dynamic variation was brought out more recently. So, whilst the program is executed, the dynamic watermark is established within its dynamically allocated data structures.

Yet, to locate the watermark generating code, a hacker can still utilise cracking techniques. He could then eliminate the establishing code. So, this means dispatching the watermark from the product in the same process, too. For such instances, the indicated utilisation is the additional fingerprint, a special form of watermark.

Fingerprinting means every individual copy of the program is uniquely watermarked, thus allowing an identification of every particular copy of a software. Each fingerprint incorporates data pointing to its purchaser rather than to its developer. In other words, by the system of fingerprinting, every copy of the software is separately watermarked. 

A watermark must be easily retrievable by the creator of the software. Nevertheless, a watermark fulfilling such condition remains often ignored during reversing attempts. Hence, it is not uncommon to state software watermarking techniques provide a pretty secret variant of protection against cracking. The watermark in a software may even be left inadvertently alone during reversing attempts!

Watermarking is quite resilient and often survives illegal efforts of removal. Dynamic watermarking techniques are more obscure and more flexible than static watermarks. Yet, surveys show they put up no noticeable advantage in fighting back the veteran pirate.

About the author

See more info concerning anti piracy software. 64 bit anti piracy is author Jose Sogiros' main domain of involvement.

Additional articles about protection

Please Rate This Article

Select Rating Excellent Very Good Interesting Fair Could Use Improvement

Number of ratings: 0
Rating: 0