Branch Obfuscation Using Binary Code Side Effects

Abstract

The path constraints are leaked by binary conditional jump instructions which are the binary representation of software's internal logic. Based on the problem of software's path constraints leaking, reverse engineering using path-sensitive techniques such as symbolic execution and theorem proving poses a new threat to software intellectual property protection. In order to mitigate path information leaking problem, this paper proposed a novel branch obfuscation scheme that uses binary code side effects to hide path constraints and takes advantage of remote trusted entity to protect software's control flow graph, without changing software's functionality. The experimental results show that this branch obfuscation technique could effectively protect software's path constraints against state-of-the-art reverse engineering, yet practical in terms of performance.