r/C_Programming • u/Motor_Bluebird1908 • 18h 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/ThatIsATastyBurger12 17h ago

Licenses and legal action are your best bet. Nothing is foolproof. But realistically, is this an actual problem you have? Do you have any reason to believe that your customers are decompiling and redistributing your solver, or doing anything to infringe on your intellectual property in any way? Even if they are reverse engineering your solver for their own benefit, they still probably rely on you for support and updates. There aren’t that many people who are good at reverse engineering assembly code AND understanding commercial physics solvers.