Obfuscating VB.NET code...

[Ryoushi.]

Hello, I'm in need of some help.

I have everything coded in my program that I want, but I need to obfuscate the code. At the moment, the file can be opened with notepad and most of the strings can be read from that. I need to obfuscate the code to prevent this.

I could use the multi string mixing method on sensitive parts of my code, e.g.
Dim ex As String, ample As String
ex = "hel"
ample = "lo"

And then write ex & ample, but this could easily be disassembled, so I need a better method.


I don't want to use an encryption program, because it won't work with the way I'm distributing this.


Thankyou.

[SacredSpenny]

And if anyone could post an encryption program thatd be nice.

[rosty]

would it work with like Var=Chr(1)+Chr(125)+Chr(621)+Chr(255)+Chr(3)
but idk

[ReidE96]

Try DotFusticator. The community (free) edition is included with Visual Studio. It's not bulletproof, but it's reasonable. (With .NET, completely bulletproof is either impossible, or extremely difficult, seeing as you can just read the stuff off the .NET framework for the most part)

[Ryoushi.]

Reid, isn't that just an encryption program?

I need something I can actually add to my code, because it will be built differently each time.

[Vindicated]

^^ Nope, Dotfuscator is an obfuscator. It basically scambles your code up to make it unreadable (As Reid said, relatively unreadable).

[ReidE96]

Unreadable for humans, anyway. If you REALLY want to make it unreadable, you'll have to compile down to a lower level than .net, and visual studio doesn't support anything like that.

[Ryoushi.]

I'm still not sure it's what I want... How exactly does it work?

My program generates a new .exe each time the user asks it to, I need this new executable to be obfuscated, rather than the program itself. I don't know if DotFuscator can provide that sort of support.

[Apoc]

There is a program created by MS that compiles your .NET programs straight to machine code before you ever ship it. However, this won't fool anybody even 1/2 good at reversing.

I suggest you look into a decent obfuscator. Good ones include string encryption, control flow obfuscation, and method/class/field/etc name renaming.

Personally; I use {smartassembly}. It never fails me, even with deep reflection code, and critical code sections.

[ReidE96]

There is a program created by MS that compiles your .NET programs straight to machine code before you ever ship it.

What program's that?

[SacredSpenny]

The program Apoc said is very good, thats what i use too.

[Ryoushi.]

I'll look into using {smartassembly}, thanks. I think it may provide what I need.