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Re: Thwarting classdump, etc.
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Re: Thwarting classdump, etc.


  • Subject: Re: Thwarting classdump, etc.
  • From: Bob Ippolito <email@hidden>
  • Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 16:23:03 -1000


On Jun 29, 2005, at 11:01 AM, Annard Brouwer wrote:

On 29 Jun 2005, at 22:40, Dave Hersey wrote:


This isn't just paranoia--I have a project in mind that needs a very high
level of protection against anyone "rewiring" some user code that interacts
with a kext. And, there *are* illicit reasons why they'd want to. As much as
I'd like to write it in Cocoa, I'm really wondering if that makes the most
sense because of security issues.

Regardless of what language it's written in, people will be able to look at how your app talks to the kext. They could write another kext, hook into the app, run it under an ICE, etc. Trying to make this harder is a lost cause. It could even backfire, if the "protection" looks interesting enough, someone might break it just to see how it was done, and of course they'd have to share their findings.


If your project would really attract the wrong people to "break in" your code, there's nothing you can do about it. Other than doing a sophisticated checksum over the binaries and hide that value in multiple places in your code somewhere to see if it has been tampered with. Determined people will get into your code no matter what. Since the system is able to run it, they can do it. There were many heated discussions about this in the Java camp. But also look at games and other programs that try to prevent people from cracking it (in vain).

In one project we chose to do the "sensitive work" in C and the rest in Java. If you choose to use this hybrid route that may be the best trade-off...

That sounds silly, the mindshare that C has among people with reverse engineering experience probably makes C code MORE likely to be picked apart, not less.


-bob

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  • Follow-Ups:
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      • From: Annard Brouwer <email@hidden>
References: 
 >Re: Thwarting classdump, etc. (From: Dave Hersey <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Thwarting classdump, etc. (From: Annard Brouwer <email@hidden>)

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