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I'm curious if reverse engineering software which is classified or otherwise protected from disclosure by the force of government is legally risky. I presume d

I'm curious if reverse engineering software which is classified or otherwise protected from disclosure by the force of government is legally risky. I presume doing so for those who have access to such software because of a security clearance might face a legal penalty under national security laws.

jcr 12y ago
Good question, particularly if interpreted in a very broad sense. The FCC is the portion of the US Fed Gov that handles things like validating the acceptable RF interference and frequency transmit/receive parameters of products. If you reverse engineer something, and the resulting reimplementation violates the FCC rules, then you'll have legal trouble. Similar would be true for Europe with the CE regulatory/testing body. For example, most wifi (802.11-) chipsets have "modes" for various countries due to the fact that the "freely available" RF spectrum varies from country to country. Though illegal (according to the FCC/CE/etc), it is often possible to make wifi chipsets use chunks of frequency that are not legally accessible (within some jurisdiction). This can be done via software (drivers) or firmware (blobs), as well as through the use of additional or modified hardware (amps, antennas, ...). When you get into "licensed spectrum" that is supposedly "owned" by a company like a mobile carrier, things get even more "legally risky" since messing around in those bands can wreak a lot of havoc. I don't know if the operation of the (mobile) baseband processors qualify as "classified" but such info is definitely protected from disclosure by both technical (hardware/software protections) and legal (contracts, NDA, etc.) means. Of course, using a self-modified baseband processor is definitely illegal since the device has not been tested and approved by the required regulatory body (FCC or CE), but the laws do have some limited exclusions/registrations for test/development purposes. If you cause problems for a carrier that spent many billions to own/license a chunk of spectrum, then you also open yourself up to civil liability for damages, in addition to the legal problems you'll have with the Fed Gov regulatory body. Needless to say, if you go mucking around in the frequency bands dedicated by law for use by the military or law enforcement, then you are going to have a whole lot of legal problems.
- TD-Linux 12y ago
  There is nothing "secret" about the operation of basebands, or what they put out on the air. This is just the companies protecting trade secrets, trying to avoid patent litigation, or just general open source averseness. Linux includes an open source regulatory information database that several open source wifi drivers use, so FCC licensing is not an issue for open source software either. It is not a form of DRM and does not require any "black boxing". Obviously you might be able to modify the software so you violate FCC rules, but you can also build your own radio transmitter and violate the FCC rules just as well. There's no special case for it being software. If you want to experiment on the radio bands, you can trivially get a ham radio license and modify the radio as you see fit, as long as you stay within the ham radio limits.

jcr 12y ago

Good question, particularly if interpreted in a very broad sense. The FCC is the portion of the US Fed Gov that handles things like validating the acceptable RF interference and frequency transmit/receive parameters of products. If you reverse engineer something, and the resulting reimplementation violates the FCC rules, then you'll have legal trouble. Similar would be true for Europe with the CE regulatory/testing body. For example, most wifi (802.11-) chipsets have "modes" for various countries due to the fact that the "freely available" RF spectrum varies from country to country. Though illegal (according to the FCC/CE/etc), it is often possible to make wifi chipsets use chunks of frequency that are not legally accessible (within some jurisdiction). This can be done via software (drivers) or firmware (blobs), as well as through the use of additional or modified hardware (amps, antennas, ...). When you get into "licensed spectrum" that is supposedly "owned" by a company like a mobile carrier, things get even more "legally risky" since messing around in those bands can wreak a lot of havoc. I don't know if the operation of the (mobile) baseband processors qualify as "classified" but such info is definitely protected from disclosure by both technical (hardware/software protections) and legal (contracts, NDA, etc.) means. Of course, using a self-modified baseband processor is definitely illegal since the device has not been tested and approved by the required regulatory body (FCC or CE), but the laws do have some limited exclusions/registrations for test/development purposes. If you cause problems for a carrier that spent many billions to own/license a chunk of spectrum, then you also open yourself up to civil liability for damages, in addition to the legal problems you'll have with the Fed Gov regulatory body. Needless to say, if you go mucking around in the frequency bands dedicated by law for use by the military or law enforcement, then you are going to have a whole lot of legal problems.

TD-Linux 12y ago
There is nothing "secret" about the operation of basebands, or what they put out on the air. This is just the companies protecting trade secrets, trying to avoid patent litigation, or just general open source averseness. Linux includes an open source regulatory information database that several open source wifi drivers use, so FCC licensing is not an issue for open source software either. It is not a form of DRM and does not require any "black boxing". Obviously you might be able to modify the software so you violate FCC rules, but you can also build your own radio transmitter and violate the FCC rules just as well. There's no special case for it being software. If you want to experiment on the radio bands, you can trivially get a ham radio license and modify the radio as you see fit, as long as you stay within the ham radio limits.