From: Leslie Viljoen <leslieviljoen@...>
Date: 2006-05-23T05:17:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Writing a interpreter extension

On 5/22/06, Kris Leech <krisleech@interkonect.com> wrote:
> Its an application that deals with highly sensitive data, I dont want
> insiders to be able to write a bit of ruby and dump the data to
> file/screen...

You are talking about two different things: hiding code (algorithms)
and hiding data. Hiding code is useless because if it can be executed
by a computer it can be cracked by a person. The millions of patches
on the Internet prove that even little known programs are cracked as soon
as they appear. If your data is hidden by your code being hard to
understand, it will be visible very soon - binaries or not.

You can hide data by encrypting it though, and then giving the key to
only those who may see the data. Even so, the key can be found by
fast computers but hopefully it is long enough that the search will
take too long to be feasable. This means that all encrypted data
has an expiry date, as faster computers come around.

So: must the sensitive data be given to only *some* of the insiders by your
program? Or must only *some* of the data be revealed to the insiders?
If you are trying to give people encrypted data that is only readable
by your program, I think that's a lost cause.

Les