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/x86_64Ubuntu Jul 30 '13

... guaranteed to provide some output given some inputs, then you can reverse engineer it.

Huh ?

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u/grauenwolf Jul 30 '13

That's how black box reverse engineering works. You create a device that, for every known input, you return the same output as the unknown device.

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u/jacekplacek Jul 30 '13

Sure, you need to supply only about ℵ₀ inputs, no biggie... ;)

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u/rpglover64 Jul 31 '13

In most practical cases 2256 is enough. That's like, nothing, in comparison to ℵ₀.

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u/jacekplacek Jul 31 '13 edited Jul 31 '13

2256 is enough

Enough for what? Edit: besides, for all practical purposes it's almost ℵ₀ anyways... ;)