logoalt Hacker News

layer8today at 12:24 AM2 repliesview on HN

> AfterPack approaches this differently. Instead of layering reversible transforms on top of each other, AfterPack uses non-linear, irreversible transforms — closer to how a hash function works than how a traditional obfuscator works. The output is functionally equivalent to the input, but the transformation destroys semantic meaning in a way that cannot be reversed — even by AfterPack itself. There's no inverse function. No secret key that unlocks the original.

That’s probably fun when trying to analyze bugs occurring in production. :)


Replies

Retr0idtoday at 12:27 AM

What they describe is snake oil. Even if you assume it is mathematically possible in the general case (which is debatable!), it'll likely have a huge performance overhead. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indistinguishability_obfuscati...

throwup238today at 12:37 AM

What they’re describing is a polymorphic virus. A great analogy for SV startups.

It works great in assembly, not so much for higher level languages.

show 1 reply