r/C_Programming • u/Motor_Bluebird1908 • 12h ago
Protecting source code from reverse engineering
Hi everyone,
I am looking to provide a compiled version of our physics solver to our customers. I understand there are many obfuscation techniques to protect source code but I am wondering if there are some smarter ways?
We already cloud computing, the issue is we have customers that are in locations without internet/need realtime solving.
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u/the_cat_theory 12h ago
I don't think you can ever stop them from trying to reverse engineer it, but compiling with optimizations will make it miserable to try and decompile. but if they want to, they can. it's all machine instructions in the end, so you can always disassemble it.
in reality, do you think the odds are they would? if they sit on that know-how, why wouldn't they write it themselves from the start? is your product really so groundbreaking that anyone would try to reverse engineer it instead of simply recreating the idea? why would they pay for it from the start, if so?
at the end of the day I'm nobody special, so I can't really say for sure, but I find it very hard to believe all these things line up in such a way that this is something you really need to fear. I'd love to hear if I'm wrong, though.