Explain Like I'm Five

14021 readers

22 users here now

Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!

Rules

Be respectful and inclusive.
No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
Engage in constructive discussions.
Share relevant content.
Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
Use appropriate language and tone.
Report violations.
Foster a continuous learning environment.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

ELI5: What kind of security mechanisms do software companies use to ensure that the source code of their products will be practically impossible to discover? (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Exemple: How does Apple guarantee that the iOS source code will not be discovered by an adversary?

Is there any type of different encryption for this case?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Turning code usable by machines into anything remotely readable is really hard. Hard enough that the people doing it are either doing it as a hobby, meaning the output quality isn't a concern, or there has to be massive amounts of potential profit. For something like iOS the second isn't ever going to be the case because competitors outright can't really use the source code if they did get it, that's protected by copyright or something. On the hobby side however, code decompilation is a thing that happens from time to time.

TLDR: the difficulty is in making the source code readable, not in getting the source code.