Patents by Inventor Cedric Tessier

Cedric Tessier has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9639673
    Abstract: The fake cryptographic layer obfuscation technique can be used to lure an attacker into expending reverse engineering efforts on sections of code the attacker would normally ignore. To do this the obfuscation technique can identify sections of code that are likely to be of lesser interest to the attacker and disguise them as higher value sections. This can be achieved by transforming a lower value section of code to include code patterns, constants, or other characteristics known to exist in sections of code of higher value, such as cryptographic routines. To transform a code section, the obfuscation technique can use one or more program modifications including control flow modifications, constant value adjustments to simulate well-known cryptographic scalars, buffer extensions, fake characteristic table insertion, debug-like information insertion, derivation function-code generation linking, and/or cryptographic algorithm specific instruction insertion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Pierre Betouin, Augustin J. Farrugia, Benoit Chevallier-Mames, Bruno Kindarji, Cédric Tessier, Jean-Baptiste Aviat, Mathieu Ciet, Thomas Icart
  • Publication number: 20150363580
    Abstract: The fake cryptographic layer obfuscation technique can be used to lure an attacker into expending reverse engineering efforts on sections of code the attacker would normally ignore. To do this the obfuscation technique can identify sections of code that are likely to be of lesser interest to the attacker and disguise them as higher value sections. This can be achieved by transforming a lower value section of code to include code patterns, constants, or other characteristics known to exist in sections of code of higher value, such as cryptographic routines. To transform a code section, the obfuscation technique can use one or more program modifications including control flow modifications, constant value adjustments to simulate well-known cryptographic scalars, buffer extensions, fake characteristic table insertion, debug-like information insertion, derivation function-code generation linking, and/or cryptographic algorithm specific instruction insertion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2014
    Publication date: December 17, 2015
    Inventors: Pierre Betouin, Augustin J. Farrugia, Benoit Chevallier-Mames, Bruno Kindarji, Cédric Tessier, Jean-Baptiste Aviat, Mathieu Ciet, Thomas Icart
  • Patent number: 9047448
    Abstract: A branch auditing system can be automatically injected into a computer program, in one embodiment, in response to a programming call provided in source code by a programmer who has selected a particular branch, in a set of possible branches, for auditing. The branch auditing system can record, in an obfuscated data structure, a path taken at the particular branch and the parameters associated with the branch and later an auditor can determine whether the path taken was valid, and if the path taken was invalid, operations can be performed to protect the program, system and/or user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Cedric Tessier, Daniel Reynaud, Jean-Baptiste Aviat, Jonathan Gregory McLachlan, Julien Lerouge, Pierre Betouin
  • Publication number: 20140201720
    Abstract: A branch auditing system can be automatically injected into a computer program, in one embodiment, in response to a programming call provided in source code by a programmer who has selected a particular branch, in a set of possible branches, for auditing. The branch auditing system can record, in an obfuscated data structure, a path taken at the particular branch and the parameters associated with the branch and later an auditor can determine whether the path taken was valid, and if the path taken was invalid, operations can be performed to protect the program, system and/or user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2013
    Publication date: July 17, 2014
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Cedric Tessier, Daniel Reynaud, Jean-Baptise Aviat, Jonathan Gregory McLachlan, Julien Lerouge, Pierre Betouin
  • Patent number: 8756434
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for executing encrypted computer code. A system configured to practice the method receives a request to execute encrypted computer code. In response to the request, the system identifies a portion of the encrypted computer code for execution and decrypts the portion to yield decrypted computer code. Then the system stores the decrypted computer code in a pool of memory and executes the decrypted computer code from the pool of memory. The system can store the decrypted computer code in the pool of memory based on a randomization algorithm so that identical executions of the encrypted computer code result in selections of different available memory locations within the pool of memory. Related portions can be stored non-consecutively in the pool of memory. The pool of memory can store different portions of decrypted computer code over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ganna Zaks, Pierre Betouin, Augustin J. Farrugia, Julien Lerouge, Jon McLachlan, Gideon M. Myles, Cédric Tessier
  • Patent number: 8615735
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for obfuscating a computer program. A system configured to practice the method identifies a set of executable instructions at a first location in an instruction section of the computer program and identifies a second location in a data section of the computer program. Then the system moves the set of executable instructions to the second location and patches references in the computer program to the set of executable instructions to point to the second location. The instruction section of the computer program can be labeled as _TEXT,_text and the data section of the computer program is labeled as _DATA,_data. The set of executable instructions can include one or more non-branching instructions optionally followed by a branching instruction. The placement of the first and second locations can be based on features of a target computing architecture, such as cache size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2013
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jon McLachlan, Ganna Zaks, Julien Lerouge, Pierre Betouin, Augustin J. Farrugia, Gideon M. Myles, Cédric Tessier
  • Publication number: 20120284688
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for obfuscating a computer program. A system configured to practice the method identifies a set of executable instructions at a first location in an instruction section of the computer program and identifies a second location in a data section of the computer program. Then the system moves the set of executable instructions to the second location and patches references in the computer program to the set of executable instructions to point to the second location. The instruction section of the computer program can be labeled as _TEXT,_text and the data section of the computer program is labeled as _DATA,_data. The set of executable instructions can include one or more non-branching instructions optionally followed by a branching instruction. The placement of the first and second locations can be based on features of a target computing architecture, such as cache size.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 3, 2011
    Publication date: November 8, 2012
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jon McLachlan, Ganna Zaks, Julien Lerouge, Pierre Betouin, Augustin J. Farrugia, Gideon M. Myles, Cédric Tessier
  • Publication number: 20120260102
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for executing encrypted computer code. A system configured to practice the method receives a request to execute encrypted computer code. In response to the request, the system identifies a portion of the encrypted computer code for execution and decrypts the portion to yield decrypted computer code. Then the system stores the decrypted computer code in a pool of memory and executes the decrypted computer code from the pool of memory. The system can store the decrypted computer code in the pool of memory based on a randomization algorithm so that identical executions of the encrypted computer code result in selections of different available memory locations within the pool of memory. Related portions can be stored non-consecutively in the pool of memory. The pool of memory can store different portions of decrypted computer code over time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2011
    Publication date: October 11, 2012
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ganna Zaks, Pierre Betouin, Augustin J. Farrugia, Julien Lerouge, Jon McLachlan, Gideon M. Myles, Cédric Tessier