In-Depth Report on Obfuscated Code: Advantages, Disadvantages & Uses

This report delves into the concept of obfuscated code, which is intentionally obscured code designed to prevent reverse engineering. It explores the reasons why programmers often avoid using obfuscated code, such as the time-consuming nature of its development, the dynamic nature of programming that prioritizes learning new technologies, and potential performance issues that can affect response time. However, the report also highlights circumstances where obfuscated code becomes useful, including protecting code from piracy, reducing code size for faster downloads and reduced bandwidth usage, optimizing codes by eliminating redundancies, retrieving original codes from time to time, detecting hacking attacks, and providing a cost-effective security mechanism for companies with limited budgets. The report references academic sources to support its claims and provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.

Obfuscated Code 1
OBFUSCATED CODE
By(Name)
(Course)
(Professor’s Name)
(University)
(City)
(Country/State)
(Date)

Obfuscated Code 2
Obfuscated Code
Obfuscated code is a code, which has been intentionally obscured by a programmer, therefore;
preventing other programmers or developers from viewing it clearly. It aims at preventing
reverse engineering (Schrittwieser et al. 2016).
Reasons why programmers avoid obfuscated code
 Time consuming. It takes a lot of time for developing an obfuscated code, therefore,
rendered as time consuming by programmers. Also, customized software requires only to
be attractive to gain marketing advantage rather than code complexity.
 Apart from time wasting, programmers also avoid obfuscated code since programming is
dynamic rather than static, therefore, programmers spent time learning new technologies
rather than focusing obfuscating code. Thus, programmers compete to invent new
technologies.
 Moreover, obfuscated codes can result in performance issues, therefore, affecting
response time. For instance, it requires a couple of techniques interacting with each other;
hence affecting runtime speed (Schrittwieser et al. 2016).
Circumstances Under Which Obfuscated Code Becomes Useful
Obfuscated code is useful when programmers need to make their codes inaccessible since piracy
rate is very high. Therefore, its used as a protection mechanism; preventing hackers from
duplicating codes or corrupting software that has been developed (Dalai et al. 2017).
Obfuscated code is also used when a programmer needs to reduce size of a code. Thus, enabling
other programmers to download it with less time. Also, it reduces bandwidth used.

Obfuscated Code 3
Also, it is useful when a programmer needs to optimize codes, for instance, codes that have been
used more than once are eliminated by an obfuscator (Dalai et al. 2017).
Besides, it is also useful when there is a need of retrieving original codes from time to time, for
instance, obfuscated tools can retrieve original stack trace.
Furthermore, it is also useful when there is a need of detecting hacking attacks. For instance, a
message is generated automatically in case someone tempers with codes.
Moreover, obfuscated code is useful when a company has less budget for incorporating security
mechanisms (Dalai et al. 2017).

Obfuscated Code 4
References
Dalai, A.K., Das, S.S. and Jena, S.K. (2017). A code obfuscation technique to prevent reverse
engineering. In Wireless Communications, Signal Processing and Networking (WiSPNET), 2017
International Conference on (pp. 828-832). IEEE.
Schrittwieser, S., Katzenbeisser, S., Kinder, J., Merzdovnik, G. and Weippl, E. (2016).
Protecting software through obfuscation: Can it keep pace with progress in code analysis? ACM
Computing Surveys (CSUR), 49(1), p.4.

Obfuscated Code 5