Exception Handling-Based Dynamic Software Watermarking

Abstract

Existing algorithms experience difficulty resisting additive and subtractive attacks because the embedded watermarks are independent of the carrier programs. A dynamic software watermarking algorithm based on exception handling is proposed in this paper. The algorithm considers the fact that exception handling, which is difficult to remove, commonly exists in the programs to ensure the normal program operation. First, an exception type table is constructed, and the binary watermark to be embedded is mapped to a sequence of exception types by scrambling encoding. Second, corresponding trigger conditions and exception handlers are constructed, and watermark embeddable points are acquired in execution paths under secret inputs. Finally, the code segment of the constructed trigger conditions and exception handlers are inserted into the program with several meticulously designed identifiers. For watermark extraction, the triggered exception types can be obtained with the identifiers by executing the watermarked executable program under secret inputs. The mapping relationship between the exception type and watermark is utilized to decode the binary watermark. The algorithm analysis and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can embed a watermark in the source code and extract it in an executable program. The algorithm demonstrates good performance against additive and subtractive attacks.INDEX TERMS Software watermarking, dynamic software watermarking, exception handling, watermark encoding.

KeySplitWatermark: Zero Watermarking Algorithm for Software Protection Against Cyber-Attacks

“…To evaluate the performance of the proposed KeySplitWatermark, we used three different samples of software source codes and we name these as S1, S2, and S3. These samples are obtained from three independent sources of code written in the C++ programming language, a bus reservation system [39], a hospital management system [40] and a student information system [41]. These code samples include classes, public member functions, iteration, and decision structures.…”

“…This section compares the performance of the KeySplitWatermark with the most recent relevant work on software watermarking Experiments are carried out on this two programs: CompressDemo and CryptoEncryption used in previous research work by [40], to facilitate comparison and used watermarks for 128, 256, 512, and 1024-bit random binary sequences. The experimental setup is kept the same as in [40] and the experiments are conducted in a system environment with Intel Core I5 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and Windows 10 operating system. To evaluate the watermarked program execution time objectively, two different inputs are selected for each program.…”

“…The reduction in execution time of the watermarked CryptoEncryption and CompressDemo for [40] and for KeySplitWatermark with different input sizes are shown in Figures 8 and 9, respectively. Figure 8 shows the reduction in execution time (ms) for input files of size 1.23 MB and 7.26 MB for the KeySplitWatermark as compared with [40] after the watermarks of 128, 256, 512 and 1024 bits are embedded in CompressDemo program. The KeySplitWatermark has reduced execution time with both input files even when watermark size is 1024 bits.…”

“…The KeySplitWatermark has reduced execution time with both input files even when watermark size is 1024 bits. Figure 9 shows the reduction in execution time (ms) for input files of size 3 and 48 KB for KeySplitWatermark as compared with [40] after the watermarks of 128, 256, 512 and 1024 bits are embedded in CryptoEncryption program. The KeySplitWatermark reduce the execution time with both input files for watermarks of varied sizes.…”

Screen-Cam Robust Image Watermarking with Feature-Based Synchronization

“…Security problems involving digital images, such as leakage, malicious theft, and illegal dissemination, still frequently occur. In order to protect the data on the computer side, data encryption [1][2][3][4][5][6] and software watermarking [7,8] schemes are proposed. Similarly, some scholars have also investigated access control technology [9][10][11] to prevent illegal copying and transmission of data by restricting internal operations.…”