Published: 18 Aug 2024

Obfuscation Techniques

Variable and Method Renaming:
- Changes method and variable names to obscure their purpose and make analysis more difficult.

Control Flow Obfuscation:
- Alters code execution flow to hinder understanding.
- Approaches include:
- Opaque Predicates: Inserts conditional statements that always evaluate to true or false but increase code complexity.
- Control Flow Graph Transformation: Introduces complex and non-intuitive paths to the code's control flow graph.
- Instruction Substitution: Replaces straightforward instructions with more complex ones.
- Code Splitting: Breaks code into multiple parts and introduces indirect calls or jumps.
- Control Flow Flattening: Converts control flow into a form where the original structure is hidden behind state machines.
- Exception Handling Obfuscation: Modifies exception handling to obscure code logic.

String Encryption:
- Encrypts string literals to prevent easy extraction.

Additional Features:
- Anti-Debugging: Protects against reverse engineering by detecting and blocking debugging attempts.
- Anti-Tampering: Prevents modifications to the obfuscated code or its execution environment.