A method, computer program product and system for protecting the location of an installed middleware application. An installer program may generate a private/public key pair at build time of a middleware application. Upon the installer program installing the middleware application, the installation location of the middleware application may be encrypted using the generated private key and then discarding the private key. The encrypted installation location of the middleware application may be decrypted by a subsequent installer program upon receiving a public key from the developer of the middleware application. Since the public key was not shipped with the middleware application, an illegitimate program, such as a Trojan horse, may not be able to decrypt the installation location of the middleware application. Since the public key may only be obtained from the developer of the middleware application, only legitimate programs may be able to decrypt the location of the installed middleware application.