SECAI Core · phase 11 of 15 · noun

Obfuscation

A technique that essentially 'hides' or 'camouflages' code or other information so that it is harder to read by unauthorized users.

The Explain card

Plain English
Obfuscation hides or camouflages code or data so it is harder for unauthorized readers to understand, without changing what it does.
Example
A prompt injection is written in base64, spread across several invisible HTML spans, or translated into an unusual language, so a simple keyword filter never sees "ignore previous instructions" while the model still decodes it.
Why it matters
Attackers obfuscate to slip past filters and analysts; defenders sometimes obfuscate to slow reverse engineering. For AI, input filters that only match plain text are easy to sidestep.
Hook
Same message, different disguise.

Word knowledge

How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.

In a sentence

The build pipeline applies obfuscation to JavaScript bundles before uploading them to the production web server.

How it is built
  • ob- prefix over, against, or in the way
  • fusc root dark or dusky
  • -ation suffix an action, process, or result
Where it came from
Origin
Late Latin obfuscātiō, from Latin obfuscāre, meaning to darken
Entered the language
15th century
What changed
It moved from literal darkening to mental confusion, then became a technical label for transformations used in software and information security.
How it is spelled
Pattern
A verb ending in -cate forms a noun in -cation by dropping the final silent e and adding -ion.
Pattern
The letter combination ti represents the sh sound before the unstressed vowel in -ation.

Spelled like

  • authentication
  • classification
  • complication
Broken into chunks
  • ob
    • obscure
    • obstruct
  • fusc
    • fuscous
    • infuscate
  • ation
    • authentication
    • transformation
What it sits beside

Same subject

Same shape

program transformation methods

  • obfuscation
  • minification
  • transpilation

software analysis activities

Where it sits in the deck

Phase 11: Threat Landscape: Attack Vectors and Adversarial Techniques

With defences named, learn what they must defend against — the full catalogue of attack techniques targeting AI systems, their inputs, outputs, training pipelines, and supply chains.

Neighbours in this phase