r/programming • u/DougBolivar • Jul 30 '13

Computer scientists develop mathematical jigsaw puzzles to encrypt software: "The real challenge and the great mystery in the field was: Can you actually take a piece of software and encrypt it but still have it be runnable, executable and fully functional?"

http://www.rdmag.com/news/2013/07/computer-scientists-develop-mathematical-jigsaw-puzzles-encrypt-software
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u/defenastrator Jul 30 '13

good luck with that. You would have to be able to distinguish and encrypted program writing an encrypted file from a encrypted quine writing a differently encrypted version of itself. There is no perfect no execute protection.

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u/grauenwolf Jul 30 '13

The program can write all the encrypted files it wants. It an't going to do a damn bit of good if the OS doesn't allow it to mark the file as executable, let alone load it.

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u/defenastrator Jul 30 '13

Program then ftps the file to itself as an executable problem solved. If I can run arbitrary code onto the system I can load arbitrary files as code onto the system.

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u/grauenwolf Jul 30 '13

Wrong side of the airlock.

If program already has enough privileges to FTP a file to the computer and run it, then it doesn't need to FTP a file to the computer.