Obfuscation is theobscuring of the intendedmeaning ofcommunication by making the message difficult to understand, usually withconfusing andambiguous language. The obfuscation might be either unintentional orintentional (although intent usually isconnoted), and is accomplished withcircumlocution (talking around the subject), the use ofjargon (technical language of a profession), and the use of anargot (ingroup language) of limited communicative value to outsiders.[1]
Inexpository writing, unintentional obfuscation usually occurs indraft documents, at the beginning ofcomposition; such obfuscation is illuminated withcritical thinking and editorial revision, either by the writer or by an editor. Etymologically, the wordobfuscation derives from the Latinobfuscatio, fromobfuscāre (to darken); synonyms include the wordsbeclouding andabstrusity.
Doctors are faulted for usingjargon to conceal unpleasant facts from a patient; the American author and physicianMichael Crichton said thatmedical writing is a "highly skilled, calculated attempt to confuse the reader". The psychologistB. F. Skinner said that medical notation is a form of multiple audience control, which allows the doctor to communicate to the pharmacist things which the patient might oppose if they could understand medical jargon.[2]
"Eschew obfuscation", also stated as "eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation", is a humorousfumblerule used by English teachers and professors when lecturing about proper writing techniques. Literally, the phrase means "avoid being unclear" or "avoid being unclear, support being clear", but the use of relatively uncommon words causes confusion in much of the audience (those lacking thevocabulary), making the statement an example ofirony, and more precisely aheterological phrase. The phrase has appeared in print at least as early as 1959, when it was used as a section heading in aNASA document.[3]
An earlier similar phrase appears inMark Twain'sFenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, where he lists rule fourteen of good writing as "eschewsurplusage".
Obfuscation of oral or written communication achieves a degree ofsecure communication without a need to rely upon technology. This technique is sometimes referred to as "talking around" and is a form ofsecurity through obscurity.
A notable example of obfuscation of written communication is a message sent bySeptember 11 attacks ringleaderMohamed Atta to other conspirators prior to the attacks occurring:[4]
The semester begins in three more weeks. We've obtained 19 confirmations for studies in the faculty of law, the faculty of urban planning, the faculty of fine arts and the faculty of engineering.
In this obfuscated message, the followingcode words are believed to exist:[5]
Within theillegal drug trade, obfuscation is commonly used in communication to hide the occurrence of drug trafficking. A common spoken example is "420", used as a code word forcannabis, a drug which, despite some recent prominentdecriminalization changes,remains illegal in most places. TheDrug Enforcement Administration reported in July 2018 a total of 353 different code words used forcannabis.[6]
Software obfuscation is the process of deliberately making code difficult to understand without changing its behaviour. This is often done to protectintellectual property and preventreverse engineering (e.g. inanti-cheat andmalware).
| Black box systems | |
|---|---|
 | |
| System | |
| Black box,Oracle machine | |
| Methods and techniques | |
| Black-box testing,Blackboxing | |
| Related techniques | |
| Feed forward,Obfuscation,Pattern recognition,White box,White-box testing,Gray-box testing,System identification | |
| Fundamentals | |
| A priori information,Control systems,Open systems,Operations research,Thermodynamic systems | |
In white-box cryptography, obfuscation refers to the protection of cryptographickeys from extraction when they are under the control of the adversary, e.g., as part of aDRM scheme.[7]
In network security, obfuscation refers to methods used to obscure an attack payload from inspection by network protection systems.
Media related toObfuscation at Wikimedia Commons