In-Depth

New “Security” Blanket for Developers

V.i. Laboratories promises that CodeArmor can application code from piracy and reverse engineering

• By Jason Turcotte
• 09/26/2006

Developers may sleep better knowing there’s a new security blanket available that promises to protect their builds from piracy and reverse engineering. The product—applied post production—requires no source code modification.

Waltham, Mass.-based V.i. Laboratories (http://www.vilabs.com/) released the latest version of its CodeArmor software earlier this week, providing enterprises with greater intellectual property protection. The solution, which supports 32-bit Windows applications and .NET applications, meshes execution monitoring and intrusion prevention to make the applications less penetrable. Once applied, CodeArmor ensures protection wherever the app is deployed, with no impact on development resources.

“Organizations need a comprehensive set of countermeasures to actively guard against piracy cracks and the theft of intellectual property resident within their software applications,” said David Pensak, CTO and founder, V.i. “However, many software vendors are reluctant to implement solutions that require source-code modification or complex security infrastructure.”

The latest version features a graphical user interface designed to configure the necessary level of protection for each application, and new measures that detect reverse engineering threats, which is the process of deconstructing existing apps with the intent of uncovering design clues. Reverse engineering is most commonly used to pirate software, steal IPs, and develop malicious software.

CodeArmor includes a software development kit that lets enterprises extend authorization and encryption to existing apps without source code changes. The kit also lets vendors integrate CodeArmor with existing authorization and software digital-rights management (DRM) framework, enabling them to bind their applications to specific machines and integrate them with DRM systems. The product supports government-standardized Advanced Encryption Standard, a block cipher that safeguards against reverse engineering.

Government agencies and enterprises have already embarked on CodeArmor deployment, particularly to combat trade fraud, illegal immigration, drug and weapons smuggling, and terrorism. According to V.i. spokespeople, one user is a leading provider of detection equipment. The client uses CodeArmor to protect sensitive embedded applications (which the company deploys worldwide) within their system.

The solution starts at $18,500 for enterprises, but custom pricing options are offered to independent software vendors. CodeArmor 2.0 is available now.