METHOD,SYSTEM AND DEVICE FOR PROTECTION AGAINST REVERSE ENGINEERING AND/OR TAMPERING WITH PROGRAMS

Unauthorized use of computer programs is made difficult by compiling a processor rather than just compiling a program into machine code. The way in which the processor should respond to machine instructions, i.e. its translation data, is computed from an arbitrary bit string B and a program P as inputs. The translation data of a processor are computed that will execute operations defined by the program P when the processor uses the given bit string B as a source of machine instructions. A processor is configured so that it will execute machine instructions according to said translation data. Other programs P′ may then be compiled into machine instructions B′ for that processor and executed by the processor. Without knowledge of the bit string B and the original program P it is difficult to modify the machine instructions B′ so that a different processor will execute the other program P′.