HARES

HARES (Hardened Anti-Reverse Engineering System) is a cryptographic technique that keeps software code encrypted until the last moment before the code is executed. This method prevents reverse engineering tools from reading the code as it is being run. HARES does this by making use of a special feature in Intel and AMD chips (the Translation Lookaside Buffer Split) which allows for a segregation between memory holding the code instruction and memory holding the data being used for the software’s operation.

In addition to being used for regular software however, there is also the possibility that HARES could be used to produce malware which could also be especially difficult to reverse engineer. However, HARES would still be likely to face issues from side-channel attacks and physical attacks.

HARES was developed by security researcher Jacob Torrey and first revealed in 2015.

 

Last updated: 5 September 2017