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Home/Magazine Archive/May 2016 (Vol. 59, No. 5)/Hiding Secrets in Software: A Cryptographic Approach.../Abstract

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Hiding Secrets in Software: A Cryptographic Approach to Program Obfuscation

By Sanjam Garg, Craig Gentry, Shai Halevi, Mariana Raykova, Amit Sahai, Brent Waters
Communications of the ACM, May 2016, Vol. 59 No. 5, Pages 113-120
10.1145/2902313
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Hiding Secrets in Software, illustration — Credit: iStockPhoto.com

Can we hide secrets in software? Can we obfuscate programs—that is, make programs unintelligible while preserving their functionality? What exactly do we mean by "unintelligible"? Why would we even want to do this?

In this article, we describe some rigorous cryptographic answers to these quasi-philosophical questions. We also discuss our recent "candidate indistinguishability obfuscation" scheme and its implications.

Comments

Asankhaya Sharma

April 28, 2016 03:08

The scope of today's cybersecurity problem is somewhat mind-boggling. Security breaches due to malware cost victims more than $500 billion each year worldwide, according to a 2014 study by market research firm IDC and the University of Singapore.

Can you please add a citation for this study and how National University of Singapore was involved?

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