Software run-time protection: A cryptographic issue

Abstract

A new method is featured which solves the software integrity problem by properly coding rather than enciphering. Adopting the lengthy and expensive solution which consists of having the whole program signed/encrypted by an authority would require full decryption and secure storage for the whole program before execution, whereas one signed instruction, pipe-lined decoding-executing, and secure recording of a few of the last read instructions suffice in our case. A general use of the proposed system could practically prevent any viral attack with minimum authority operation.