A good protection is NOT an impossible dream! :-)

[bgrimm]

Those guidelines are good, and could be great, if not running
on the underlying Micro$oft Windows OS.

The OS is the biggest weakness aside from sloppy protection
design. Even protectionists who try to write there own underlying
system calls with special drivers, sys and vxd's are not safe.

If it runs on windows, you can make it no fun to reverse, but if
someone wants to take the time, windows will let them take it
apart.

I honestly think many of the highly regarded folks who visit this
board know more about the internal workings of Windows than
most of Bill Gate's wage slaves who sit in there cubicles and
write convoluted code all day long with no sense of direction.

If you put many of those protection mantra's in place in a
secure OS, or even better, an embedded OS, THEN they may
be sufficient to fend off all but the occasional government
sponsered agency & honest or not "corporation".


my 2 cents,
-BG