A Buffer Overflow Based Algorithm to Conceal Software Watermarking Trigger Behavior

Abstract

SUMMARYSoftware watermarking is a digital technique used to protect software by embedding some secret information as identification in order to discourage software piracy and unauthorized modification. Watermarking is still a relatively new field and has good potential in protecting software from privacy threats. However, there appears to be a security vulnerability in the watermark trigger behaviour, and has been frequently attacked. By tracing the watermark trigger behaviour, attackers can easily intrude into the software and locate and expose the watermark for modification. In order to address this problem, we propose an algorithm that obscures the watermark trigger behaviour by utilizing buffer overflow. The code of the watermark trigger behaviour is removed from the software product itself, making it more difficult for attackers to trace the software. Experiments show that the new algorithm has promising performance in terms of the imperceptibility of software watermark. key words: software watermarking, trigger behaviour, buffer overflow

Exception Handling-Based Dynamic Software Watermarking

“…Software watermarking can be classified as static or dynamic depending on the occasion of watermark embedding and extraction [2]. The carrier program is considered a static object in the static watermarking, and the watermark is embedded into the static data or code; examples include code replacement [3], basic block reordering [4], register allocation [5], opacity predicate [6], graph coding [7], and Java method name encoding [8] watermarking algorithms and impeding Android application repackaging [9].…”

“…These methods extract the embedded watermark from the stack data structure during program execution. Another example is operation status watermarking [17], such as return-oriented programming-based [18], buffer overflow-based [2], and control flow obfuscation-based watermarking algorithms [19]. The return-oriented programming-based watermarking algorithm decomposes a watermark and spreads it in the different parts of the program.…”