Inventors:
Theodore H. Romer - Seattle WA
Alastair Wolman - Seattle WA
Dennis Chua Lee - Seattle WA
Geoffrey Michael Voelker - Seattle WA
Brian N. Bershad - Seattle WA
John Bradley Chen - Winchester MA
Henry M. Levy - Seattle WA
Wayne Anthony Wong - Hillsboro OR
Assignee:
University of Washington - Seattle WA
International Classification:
G06F 9445
Abstract:
A method and procedure for modifying modules comprising a binary executable software program in such a way that, despite the transformations performed and the creation of new versions of the modules, the transformed program appears (to that program, including all of its components) as if it is running in the identical environment as the original program. The environment includes environment variables, the name of the program, the names of all of the dynamically loaded library (DLL) files that the program references, the directory in which the program resides, and the current directory at the time the program started execution. When the program has been transformed, e. g. , for the purposes of monitoring or measurement, the environment also includes the effective addresses of data and instruction references made by the program. By employing the present invention, a modified software program will have the same behavior as the original unmodified program from which it is derived, even though it and many of its environment characteristics have been changed.