Towards code obfuscation through video game crowd sourcing

Abstract

Code obfuscation is used to prevent software piracy as well as to avoid reverse engineering of malicious software (malware). From the perspective of malware authors, unique approaches to obfuscate code are beneficial to avoid detection. There have been instances where malware authors have leveraged the support of unsuspecting humans for malicious activities. In this work, we analyze if humans can obfuscate code without knowing that they are generating code. We opted to examine if video games could be a possible channel to extract code obfuscations from humans. In this thesis, we discuss the development of a new game that is designed to generate obfuscated code during gameplay. We also research if code obfuscations are possible using existing games. We assess our implementation to check if it is feasible to generate diverse obfuscated versions of original code based on the randomness generated in the game due to player interactions or movements in video games. Lastly, we discuss the limitations of this approach and recommend some future work.