Method and system for automatically identifying the source of copied software
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsAlexander Steven Ross, Neil Graham
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, system, and computer-usable medium for automatically identifying the source of copied software. A single identifying marker can be embedded in a common code base associated with different software application products. A suspected copy of a product can be fed to an automated tool, which extracts the type of object code, which is then scanned to determine the identifying marker. The automated tool can therefore identify the exact product and version of the suspected copy utilizing the identifying marker and the type of object code without the need for labor-intensive modification of the common code base and product-specific markers.
Claims20
A computer-implementable method, comprising:
- receiving a suspected copy of a software application;
- identifying a particular type of object code for said suspected copy;
- scanning said suspected copy to extract and identify an identifying marker in said suspected copy, wherein said identifying marker automatically identifies a particular version family of said suspected copy with respect to a common code base of said software application;
- and
- using the particular type of object code and the particular version family to determine an exact product of said suspected copy utilizing an automated tool.
A system, comprising:
- a processor;
- a data bus coupled to said processor;
- and
- a computer-usable medium embodying computer code, said computer-usable medium being coupled to said data bus, said computer program code comprising instructions executable by said processor and configured for:
- receiving a suspected copy of a software application;
- identifying a particular type of object code for said suspected copy;
- scanning said suspected copy to extract and identify an identifying marker in said suspected copy, wherein said identifying marker automatically identifies a particular version family of said suspected copy with respect to a common code base of said software application;
- and
- using said particular type of object code and said particular version family to determine an exact product of said suspected copy utilizing an automated tool.
A computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, said computer program code comprising computer executable instructions configured for:
- receiving a suspected copy of a software application;
- identifying a particular type of object code for said suspected copy;
- scanning said suspected copy to extract and identify an identifying marker in said suspected copy, wherein said identifying marker automatically identifies a particular version family of said suspected copy with respect to a common code base of said software application;
- and
- using said particular type of object code and said particular version family to determine an exact product of said suspected copy utilizing an automated tool.
The computer-usable medium of 14, wherein said identifying marker is associated with said particular version family of said common code base.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.