lainswork / KProtect

Stack-based JavaScript virtual machine

Kernel Protect

Kernel Protect (K-Protect for short), is a stack-based virtual machine written in Typescript. It can compile ECMAScript(JavaScript) files to opcode, and execute them using the VM. This project can be used to protect ECMAScript-written algorithms that are used in front-end webpage to block spiders and secure website API.

This VM is inspired by VMProtect and RISC architecture. It is currently experimental and SHOULD not be used in any production environment.

Structure

Bundle file

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            Bundle file (JSON)            │
├──────────┬───────────┬───────────────────┤
│ [String] │  bytecode │ compressed opcode │
├──────────┼───────────┼───────────────────┤
│ [ List ] │  strings  │ string constants  │
├──────────┼───────────┼───────────────────┤
│ [ Dict ] │lookUpTable│   index for JMP   │
└──────────┴───────────┴───────────────────┘

IL structure

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Intermediate Language Structure (Dict)  │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ [String] key: the name of this block     │
│ [ Dict ] val: the data of this block     │
│  ├── [String] key: 'instructions'        │
│  │ + [ List ] val: instruction list      │
│  │    └── [ Dict ] item: instruction     │
│  │         ├── [String] key: 'opcode'    │
│  │         │ + [Number] val: opcode      │
│  │         └── [String] key: 'args'      │
│  │           + [ List ] val: arguments   │
│  │              └── [ Dict ] item: arg   │
│  │                   ├── key: 'type'     │
│  │                   │ + val: [Number]   │
│  │                   └── key: 'value'    │
│  │                     + val: [ Any ]    │
│  └── [String] key: 'inheritsContext'     │
│    + [ Bool ] val: true, not used        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

Opcode structure

┌────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬─────┐
│ opcode │  Main Block │ Block 1 │ Block 2 │ ... │
└────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴─────┘

A block is a segment of code, seperated because it is not only executed ordinal but also with some condition.

VM architecture

Global

• stack: runtime data storage
• programCounter: current opcode index
• localVariables: variable storage
• tracebackStack: traceback stack after exiting other blocks
• blockLabelStack: the stack of active block labels

Core

                    ┌────────────┬───────────────┬─────┐
  traceback stack:  │ mainExit() │ breakpoint1() │ ... │
                    └────────────┴───────────────┴─────┘
                                     |               ↑
              STORE STRING JMP traceback IF_BLOCK   pop
              ┌──↑───↑───────↑───────↓───↑───────────│──────┐
   opcode:    │ 006 000 001 023 002 ... 001 001 000 037 ... │
              └──────────│───────│───────↑───────────↓──────┘
                       fetch   fetch     └───────┐  EXIT
         ┌─────────┬─────↓───┬───↓──────┬─────┐  │
 string: │ string0 │ string1 │ if_xx:xx │ ... │ jmp
         └─────────┴─────────┴─────│────┴─────┘  └────────┐
                                   │                      │
                                locate    lookUpTable:    │
                                   │    ┌───────────────┐ │
                                   └────→ if_xx:xx => 5 ──┘
                                        ├───────────────┤
                                        │      ...      │
                                        └───────────────┘

Usage

Install dependency

yarn

Build VM kernel

yarn build

Protect JS file

yarn protect

The source file is protect/src.js, and the output file is protect/bundle.json.

Author

• Name: Richard Yang(杨中天)
• College: Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
• Email: [e-mail]

Acknowledgement

• https://github.com/Kechinator/jsvm (ISC)
• https://github.com/estools/escodegen (BSD 2-Clause)

License

Kernel Protect

Copyright ©2023 Richard Yang(杨中天) [e-mail].

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.