Code renewability for native software protection

Software protection aims at safeguarding assets embedded in software by preventing and delaying reverse engineering and tampering attacks. This article presents an architecture and supporting tool flow to renew parts of native applications dynamically. Renewed and diversified code and data belonging to either the original application or to linked-in protections are delivered from a secure server to a client on demand. This results in frequent changes to the software components when they are under attack, thus making attacks harder. By supporting various forms of diversification and renewability, novel protection combinations become available and existing combinations become stronger. The prototype implementation is evaluated on several industrial use cases

Code Renewability for Native Software Protection

Software protection aims at safeguarding assets embedded in software by preventing and delaying reverse engineering and tampering attacks. This paper presents an architecture and supporting tool flow to renew parts of native applications dynamically. Renewed and diversified code and data belonging to either the original application or to linked-in protections are delivered from a secure server to a client on demand. This results in frequent changes to the software components when they are under attack, thus making attacks harder. By supporting various forms of diversification and renewability, novel protection combinations become available, and existing combinations become stronger. The prototype implementation is evaluated on a number of industrial use cases

The ASPIRE framework for software protection

In the ASPIRE research project, a software protection tool flow was designed and prototyped that targets native ARM Android code. This tool flow supports the deployment of a number of protections against man-at-the-end attacks. In this tutorial, an overview of the tool flow will be presented and attendants will participate to a hands-on demonstration. In addition, we will present an overview of the decision support systems developed in the project to facilitate the use of the protection tool flow

Micro and nanoparticles of native and modified cassava starches as carriers of the antimicrobial potassium sorbat

Cross-linked and/or acetylated cassava starches were synthesized and characterized. The acetylation increased the water retention capacity and the solubility in water while the higher level of cross-linking produced the opposite effect on starch. Native (NCS) and acetylated cassava starches (ACS) were used to generate starch micro- and nanoparticles by the dialysis technique.The nanoparticle fraction was around 1.8 g 100 g1 and 12 g 100 g1 (starch dry basis) for NCS and ACS, respectively. The nanoparticle sizes were around 23?255nm with zeta potential extending from 4 to 44mV, while the microscopic fractions ranged 5?87mm. In addition, the capacity of particles to support potassium sorbate (KS) was tested. NCS and ACS particles supported a similar quantity of KS (1400 ppm) and the presence of antimicrobial decreased the particle size for NCS. The precipitation in ethanol technique was also used to generate microparticles where the particles generated from acetylated starches were smaller (8?58mm) than those from native ones (30?227 mm). The KS content that these particles could incorporate was around 2020 ppm. The applied technique modulated the average dimension of the particles obtained, as well as the antimicrobial retention capacity. These innovative materials could bepotentially helpful for shelf life extension by the contribution to the KS stabilization to be incorporated in the bulk of food products.Fil: Alzate Calderón, Paola Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Industrias; ArgentinaFil: Zalduendo, María Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gerschenson, Lia Noemi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Industrias; ArgentinaFil: Flores, Silvia Karina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentin

A reference architecture for software protection

This paper describes the ASPIRE reference architecture designed to tackle one major problem in this domain: the lack of a clear process and an open software architecture for the composition and deployment of multiple software protections on software application

A Reference Architecture for Software Protection

This paper describes the ASPIRE reference architecture designed to tackle one major problem in this domain: the lack of a clear process and an open software architecture for the composition and deployment of multiple software protections on software applications

Design, Implementation, and Automation of a Risk Management Approach for Man-at-the-End Software Protection

The last years have seen an increase in Man-at-the-End (MATE) attacks against software applications, both in number and severity. However, software protection, which aims at mitigating MATE attacks, is dominated by fuzzy concepts and security-through-obscurity. This paper presents a rationale for adopting and standardizing the protection of software as a risk management process according to the NIST SP800-39 approach. We examine the relevant constructs, models, and methods needed for formalizing and automating the activities in this process in the context of MATE software protection. We highlight the open issues that the research community still has to address. We discuss the benefits that such an approach can bring to all stakeholders. In addition, we present a Proof of Concept (PoC) decision support system that instantiates many of the discussed construct, models, and methods and automates many activities in the risk analysis methodology for the protection of software. Despite being a prototype, the PoC's validation with industry experts indicated that several aspects of the proposed risk management process can already be formalized and automated with our existing toolbox and that it can actually assist decision-making in industrially relevant settings.Comment: Preprint submitted to Computers & Security. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2011.0726

A Reference Architecture for Software Protection

This paper describes the ASPIRE reference archi-tecture designed to tackle one major problem in this domain: the lack of a clear process and an open software architecture for the composition and deployment of multiple software protections on software applications

Development and Characterization of Poly(lactic acid)/Acetylated Starch Blends

In this study, the acetylation of starch was investigated as a means to improve its thermal processability and compatibility with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and ultimately widen the range of potential applications for PLA/acetylated starch (AS) blends. The work was divided in two parts: (1) the characterization of AS according to degree of substitution (DS) and (2) the preparation and characterization of PLA/AS blends. The crystalline structure of AS, examined by X-ray diffraction, was destroyed upon acetylation. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) revealed that the removal of the crystalline structure during acetylation facilitated molecular movement and glass transition which should facilitate the thermal processability of AS. Decreased molecular weight of AS upon acetylation, which leads to the improvement of thermal processability, was confirmed by dilute solution viscometry. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) showed improved thermal stability upon acetylation which widens the processing temperature window of AS. Lower hydrophilicity of AS was revealed by contact angle analysis which is expected to generate more effective interactions with conventional polymers. Enhancement of the thermal expansion (measured by thermomechanical analysis (TMA)) and the lower density (measured by suspension) should improve the compatibility of AS with conventional polymers. The molecular mobility of AS with degree of substitution (DS) 1.5 and 3 was investigated by temperature-modulated DSC (TMDSC) and solid-state 13C NMR (SS-NMR). The relaxation time of hole formation, estimated from TMDSC data, was proposed as the representative of α-relaxation time near T_g. The T_g estimated from the VFT model was similar to the T_g measured by DSC and by heat-cool mode TMDSC supporting the analogy between the relaxation time of hole formation and the α-relaxation time. The cooperative rearranging region (CRR) size, investigated by heat-cool mode TMDSC, was smaller for DS3 compared to DS1.5 which was attributed to the disruption of hydrogen bonds. TMDSC experimental data at moderate temperature, predictions at ambient temperature and SS-NMR results at ambient temperature suggest different mobility of acetylated starch according to DS. The acetylation of starch generated PLA/AS blends with distinct properties. A biphasic morphology was predicted by the compressible regular solution (CRS) model and confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations for all PLA/AS blends, except the PLA/DS3 blend. The thickness of the interphase of the biphasic PLA/AS blends, estimated theoretically from the properties of the pure component and experimentally by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), increased with increasing DS of AS. The estimated interphase was generally related to the length scale of the dynamic heterogeneity of the PLA matrix. Slowdown of the PLA chain dynamics at the interphase region was estimated for PLA/DS0 and PLA/DS1.5 blends and related to the hydrogen bonding between the PLA chains and AS observed by FTIR. The properties of PLA/AS blends were affected by the DS of AS. The thermal stability of PLA/AS blends, obtained by TGA, was improved compared to neat PLA. DSC results indicated that AS had a plasticization and nucleation effect in the PLA/AS blends. The highest tensile strength, toughness, and impact strength was achieved when DS2.5 was added to PLA which may reflect the biphasic structure and the thick diffused interphase of this blend. The water diffusion coefficient and the water vapor permeability (WVP) of PLA/AS blends were influenced by the presence of AS. The water diffusion coefficient decreased while the WVP increased for PLA/AS blends by incorporation of AS. The rate of crystallization of neat PLA and PLA/AS blends with different DS were investigated. The PLA/DS0.5 and PLA/DS1.5 blends showed the highest and the lowest rate of crystallization in isothermal crystallization conditions, respectively. The highest rate of crystallization in isothermal crystallization conditions for the PLA/DS0.5 blend may reflect the highest nucleation activity of DS0.5 along with the faster dynamics of the PLA chains. In the context of the PLA/DS1.5 blend, the highest initial degree of crystallinity may seem contrary with the lowest crystallization rate of this blend in isothermal crystallization conditions. The non-isothermal crystallization investigation, however, revealed similar rates of crystallization for the PLA/DS1.5 blend compared to the other PLA/AS blends at the lowest cooling rate (2°C/min) while having the fastest rate of crystallization at the highest cooling rate (5°C/min). The positive activation energy for the crystallization of the PLA/DS1.5 blend may reflect an endothermic process in the crystallization of this blend as a result of interfacial interactions. The largest amorphous phase thickness observed by SAXS for the PLA/DS1.5 blend could explain the significance of the interfacial interactions in this blend. Finally, the results of this study showed that the acetylation of starch is a promising avenue for PLA/starch blends. Increasing the processability of starch and its compatibility with PLA through acetylation, provides the opportunity of making a wide range of materials with different applications. Various mechanical, thermal, and water transport properties, transparency and crystallization behavior can be achieved by incorporating AS with different DS into PLA. For final applications, the effect of AS concentration on the properties of the PLA/AS blend should be investigated. The concentration of the AS dispersed phase in PLA/AS blends should lead to differences in morphology, interfacial characteristics and ultimately properties of the blend. Transparency, visual appearance and degradation rate of the blends are also very important factors in final applications that need to be studied in the future