Creative Manual Code Obfuscation as a Countermeasure Against Software Reverse Engineering

Abstract

Due to the relevance of IT security to industry, politics, and the public alike, research on IT-security-related issues is abundant. However, a lack of interdisciplinarity in this domain has led to a vast amount of detailed information on technical aspects of security one the one hand, and little to no insight into the psychological aspects of attacking, defending, or securely using technological systems on the other. This research effort aims to contribute to filling this gap by determining cognitive predictors of software reverse engineering as well as code obfuscation success and by describing and analyzing approaches and strategies IT specialists use when attacking or defending Java programs. Moreover, the relevance of adversarial reasoning in this domain is assessed. In an experimental design, participant pairs either receive an instruction into game theoretical concepts of adversarial reasoning or not, to then obfuscate Java code or reverse engineer clear and obfuscated code.