"Without protection, software is vulnerable to reverse engineering, piracy, and tampering. Every software vendor should be aware of this threat and make use of techniques such as those described inSurreptitious Softwareto protect their valuable intellectual property. This is the first book of its kind and it provides an excellent description of these challenges as well as possible solutions." -Sandy Ring, Founder and CEO of Pikewerks Corporation "This book gives a thorough scholarly coverage of an area of growing importance in computer security, and is a ls"must havers" for every researcher, student, and practicing professional in software protection." -Mikhail Atallah, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University Breakthrough Techniques for Fighting Software Piracy, Tampering, and Malicious Reverse Engineering Leading-edge researchers have developed several pioneering approaches to preventing or resisting software piracy and tampering. These techniques are indispensable for software developers seeking to protect vital intellectual property: They can mean the difference between business survival and failure.Surreptitious Softwareis the first authoritative, comprehensive resource for developers who want to understand them, choose amongst them, and apply them with minimal performance impact. Christian Collberg and Jasvir Nagra bring together techniques drawn from all areas of computer science, including cryptography, steganography, watermarking, software metrics, reverse engineering, and compiler optimization. Using extensive sample code, they show how to implement protection schemes ranging from birthmarking and fingerprinting to code obfuscation. They also demonstrate how to manage virtually any IP protection challenge, from tracing piracy to preventing the removal of license checks. Coverage includes bull; Predicting the comparative effectiveness of different algorithms and approaches in resisting attack bull; Mastering techniques that both attackers and defenders use to analyze programs bull; Using code obfuscation to make software harder to read, understand, and steal bull; Fingerprinting software to identify the source of piracy bull; Tamperproofing software with authorization checks, guards, and other techniques bull; Strengthening content protection through dynamic watermarks bull; Resisting piracy via software similarity analysis and birthmarking algorithms bull; Using software to defend against hardware exploits Whatever your role in protecting software or content, itrs"s harder than ever to stay ahead of the crackers and pirates. You canrs"t do it without the tools, techniques, and code yours"ll find inSurreptitious Software.