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Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation

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Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation. / Kuang, Kaiyuan; Tang, Zhanyong; Gong, Xiaoqing et al.
The 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-16). IEEE, 2016. p. 489-496 (2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA).

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Conference contribution/Paper › peer-review

Harvard

Kuang, K, Tang, Z, Gong, X, Fang, D, Chen, X, Xing, T, Ye, G, Zhang, J & Wang, Z 2016, Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation. in The 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-16). 2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA, IEEE, pp. 489-496, 2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA, Tianjin, China, 23/08/16. https://doi.org/10.1109/TrustCom.2016.0101

APA

Kuang, K., Tang, Z., Gong, X., Fang, D., Chen, X., Xing, T., Ye, G., Zhang, J., & Wang, Z. (2016). Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation. In The 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-16) (pp. 489-496). (2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TrustCom.2016.0101

Vancouver

Kuang K, Tang Z, Gong X, Fang D, Chen X, Xing T et al. Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation. In The 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-16). IEEE. 2016. p. 489-496. (2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA). doi: 10.1109/TrustCom.2016.0101

Author

Kuang, Kaiyuan ; Tang, Zhanyong ; Gong, Xiaoqing et al. / Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation. The 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-16). IEEE, 2016. pp. 489-496 (2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA).

Bibtex

@inproceedings{f141c10de3fb4dabbf888ec34384e34c,
title = "Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation",
abstract = "Code virtualization built upon virtual machine (VM) technologies is emerging as a viable method for implementing code obfuscation to protect programs against unauthorized analysis. State-of-the-art VM-based protection approaches use a fixed scheduling structure where the program follows a single, static execution path for the same input. Such approaches, however, are vulnerable to certain scenarios where the attacker can reuse knowledge extracted from previously seen software to crack applications using similar protection schemes. This paper presents DSVMP, a novel VM-based code obfuscation approach for software protection. DSVMP brings together two techniques to provide stronger code protection than prior VM-based schemes.Firstly, it uses a dynamic instruction scheduler to randomly direct the program to execute different paths without violating the correctness across different runs. By randomly choosing the program execution paths, the application exposes diverse behavior, making it much more difficult for an attacker to reuse the knowledge collected from previous runs or similar applications to perform attacks. Secondly, it employs multiple VMs to further obfuscate the relationship between VM bytecode and their interpreters, making code analysis even harder. We have implemented DSVMP in a prototype system and evaluated it using a set of widely used applications. Experimental results show that DSVMP provides stronger protection with comparable runtime overhead and code size when compared to two commercial VMbased code obfuscation tools.",
author = "Kaiyuan Kuang and Zhanyong Tang and Xiaoqing Gong and Dingyi Fang and Xiaojiang Chen and Tianzhang Xing and Guixin Ye and Jie Zhang and Zheng Wang",
year = "2016",
month = aug,
day = "23",
doi = "10.1109/TrustCom.2016.0101",
language = "English",
isbn = "9781509032068",
series = "2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA",
publisher = "IEEE",
pages = "489--496",
booktitle = "The 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-16)",
note = "2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA ; Conference date: 23-08-2016 Through 26-08-2016",

}

RIS

TY - GEN

T1 - Exploiting dynamic scheduling for VM-based code obfuscation

AU - Kuang, Kaiyuan

AU - Tang, Zhanyong

AU - Gong, Xiaoqing

AU - Fang, Dingyi

AU - Chen, Xiaojiang

AU - Xing, Tianzhang

AU - Ye, Guixin

AU - Zhang, Jie

AU - Wang, Zheng

PY - 2016/8/23

Y1 - 2016/8/23

N2 - Code virtualization built upon virtual machine (VM) technologies is emerging as a viable method for implementing code obfuscation to protect programs against unauthorized analysis. State-of-the-art VM-based protection approaches use a fixed scheduling structure where the program follows a single, static execution path for the same input. Such approaches, however, are vulnerable to certain scenarios where the attacker can reuse knowledge extracted from previously seen software to crack applications using similar protection schemes. This paper presents DSVMP, a novel VM-based code obfuscation approach for software protection. DSVMP brings together two techniques to provide stronger code protection than prior VM-based schemes.Firstly, it uses a dynamic instruction scheduler to randomly direct the program to execute different paths without violating the correctness across different runs. By randomly choosing the program execution paths, the application exposes diverse behavior, making it much more difficult for an attacker to reuse the knowledge collected from previous runs or similar applications to perform attacks. Secondly, it employs multiple VMs to further obfuscate the relationship between VM bytecode and their interpreters, making code analysis even harder. We have implemented DSVMP in a prototype system and evaluated it using a set of widely used applications. Experimental results show that DSVMP provides stronger protection with comparable runtime overhead and code size when compared to two commercial VMbased code obfuscation tools.

AB - Code virtualization built upon virtual machine (VM) technologies is emerging as a viable method for implementing code obfuscation to protect programs against unauthorized analysis. State-of-the-art VM-based protection approaches use a fixed scheduling structure where the program follows a single, static execution path for the same input. Such approaches, however, are vulnerable to certain scenarios where the attacker can reuse knowledge extracted from previously seen software to crack applications using similar protection schemes. This paper presents DSVMP, a novel VM-based code obfuscation approach for software protection. DSVMP brings together two techniques to provide stronger code protection than prior VM-based schemes.Firstly, it uses a dynamic instruction scheduler to randomly direct the program to execute different paths without violating the correctness across different runs. By randomly choosing the program execution paths, the application exposes diverse behavior, making it much more difficult for an attacker to reuse the knowledge collected from previous runs or similar applications to perform attacks. Secondly, it employs multiple VMs to further obfuscate the relationship between VM bytecode and their interpreters, making code analysis even harder. We have implemented DSVMP in a prototype system and evaluated it using a set of widely used applications. Experimental results show that DSVMP provides stronger protection with comparable runtime overhead and code size when compared to two commercial VMbased code obfuscation tools.

U2 - 10.1109/TrustCom.2016.0101

DO - 10.1109/TrustCom.2016.0101

M3 - Conference contribution/Paper

SN - 9781509032068

T3 - 2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA

SP - 489

EP - 496

BT - The 15th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (IEEE TrustCom-16)

PB - IEEE

T2 - 2016 IEEE Trustcom/BigDataSE/I​SPA

Y2 - 23 August 2016 through 26 August 2016

ER -