XuanJia: A Comprehensive Virtualization-Based Code Obfuscator for Binary Protection
Published in arXiv preprint, 2026
Abstract
We present XuanJia, a comprehensive virtualization-based code obfuscator that leverages virtual machine protection to safeguard binary programs against reverse engineering and tampering attacks. Our framework provides a multi-layered obfuscation pipeline that combines control flow flattening, opaque predicates, and custom virtual machine interpreters to significantly raise the bar for adversarial analysis.
Key Contributions
- A comprehensive virtualization-based obfuscation framework for binary protection
- Novel virtual machine design with custom instruction set architecture
- Extensive evaluation demonstrating resilience against state-of-the-art deobfuscation techniques
Authors
Xianyu Zou, Xiaoli Gong, Jin Zhang, Shiyang Li, Pen-Chung Yew
Recommended citation: X. Zou, X. Gong, J. Zhang, S. Li, P.-C. Yew. "XuanJia: A Comprehensive Virtualization-Based Code Obfuscator for Binary Protection." arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.10261, 2026.
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