Protecting Software

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed on a processing system, cause the processing system to carry out a method for generating a secured software application from a source software application, the method comprising:

• receiving a source software application;
• identifying one or more sets of source instructions within the source software application;
• for each of the sets of source instructions, generating respective data representative of the respective set of source instructions;
• and
• generating a secured software application comprising the data and comprising a runtime engine,
• wherein the runtime engine comprises code for processing the data, during a runtime of the secured software application, to generate, for each of the sets of source instructions, a respective plurality of generations of a respective set of runtime instructions, for execution during the runtime, wherein each generation of the respective set of runtime instructions is functionally equivalent to the respective set of source instructions, and wherein at least two of the generations of the respective set of runtime instructions differ from each other;
• and
• wherein the runtime engine comprises code for writing the runtime instructions generated by the runtime engine at each generation to a memory of a processing system executing the secured software application, and for causing the generated runtime instructions to be executed directly from the memory.

A processing system for generating a secured software application from a source software application, the processing system comprising a memory and one or more processors, wherein the memory stores software which, when executed by the one or more processors causes the processing system to carry out a method comprising:

• receiving a source software application;
• identifying one or more sets of source instructions within the source software application;
• for each of the sets of source instructions, generating respective data representative of the respective set of source instructions;
• and
• generating a secured software application comprising the data and comprising a runtime engine,
• wherein the runtime engine comprises code for processing the data, during a runtime of the secured software application, to generate, for each of the sets of source instructions, a respective plurality of generations of a respective set of runtime instructions, for execution during the runtime, wherein each generation of the respective set of runtime instructions is functionally equivalent to the respective set of source instructions, and wherein at least two of the generations of the respective set of runtime instructions differ from each other;
• and
• wherein the runtime engine comprises code for writing the runtime instructions generated by the runtime engine at each generation to a memory of a processing system executing the secured software application, and for causing the generated runtime instructions to be executed directly from the memory.