Dotfuscator

Last updated
Dotfuscator
Developer(s) Preemptive Solutions, LLC
Initial releaseApril 2002;21 years ago (2002-04)
Stable release
6.5.4 / 7 April 2023;3 months ago (2023-04-07)
Operating system Windows, Linux, MacOS.
Type Code obfuscator
License Proprietary software
Website www.preemptive.com/products/dotfuscator

Dotfuscator is a tool performing a combination of code obfuscation, optimization, shrinking, and hardening on .NET, Xamarin and Universal Windows Platform apps. Ordinarily, .NET executables can easily be reverse engineered by free tools (such as ILSpy, dotPeek and JustDecompile), potentially exposing algorithms and intellectual property (trade secrets), licensing and security mechanisms. Also, code can be run through a debugger and its data inspected. Dotfuscator can make all of these things more difficult.

Contents

Dotfuscator was developed by PreEmptive Solutions. A free version of the .NET Obfuscator, called the Dotfuscator Community Edition, is distributed as part of Microsoft's Visual Studio. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] However, the current version is free for personal, non-commercial use only.

Related Research Articles

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is an implementation of Microsoft's event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6.0 built into most desktop Microsoft Office applications. Although based on pre-.NET Visual Basic, which is no longer supported or updated by Microsoft, the VBA implementation in Office continues to be updated to support new Office features. VBA is used for professional and end-user development due to its perceived ease-of-use, Office's vast installed userbase, and extensive legacy in business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual Basic (.NET)</span> Object-oriented computer programming language

Visual Basic (VB), originally called Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), is a multi-paradigm, object-oriented programming language, implemented on .NET, Mono, and the .NET Framework. Microsoft launched VB.NET in 2002 as the successor to its original Visual Basic language, the last version of which was Visual Basic 6.0. Although the ".NET" portion of the name was dropped in 2005, this article uses "Visual Basic [.NET]" to refer to all Visual Basic languages released since 2002, in order to distinguish between them and the classic Visual Basic. Along with C# and F#, it is one of the three main languages targeting the .NET ecosystem. Microsoft updated its VB language strategy on 6 Feb 2023 stating that VB is a stable language now and Microsoft will keep maintaining it.

Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system family developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Visio</span> Diagramming and vector graphics software application

Microsoft Visio is a diagramming and vector graphics application and is part of the Microsoft Office family. The product was first introduced in 1992, made by the Shapeware Corporation, later renamed Visio Corporation. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2000. A lightweight version of Visio is now included with all commercial SKU of Microsoft 365 and is known as Visio in Microsoft 365. It has two other subscription based SKUs. Visio Plan 1 includes the Visio web app whereas Visio Plan 2 provides access to both the web app as well as the Desktop application.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft XNA</span> Freeware set of tools by Microsoft

Microsoft XNA is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio can help develop XNA games. The XNA toolset was announced on March 24, 2004, at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. A first Community Technology Preview of XNA Build was released on March 14, 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windows Forms</span> Graphical user interface software library is Windows Explorer.

Windows Forms (WinForms) is a free and open-source graphical (GUI) class library included as a part of Microsoft .NET, .NET Framework or Mono, providing a platform to write client applications for desktop, laptop, and tablet PCs. While it is seen as a replacement for the earlier and more complex C++ based Microsoft Foundation Class Library, it does not offer a comparable paradigm and only acts as a platform for the user interface tier in a multi-tier solution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft Visual Studio Express</span> Integrated development environment

Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a set of integrated development environments (IDEs) that Microsoft developed and released free of charge. They are function-limited version of the non-free Visual Studio and require mandatory registration. Express editions started with Visual Studio 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SharpDevelop</span>

SharpDevelop is a discontinued free and open source integrated development environment (IDE) for the .NET Framework, Mono, Gtk# and Glade# platforms. It supports development in C#, Visual Basic .NET, Boo, F#, IronPython and IronRuby programming languages.

Microsoft SQL Server Data Engine is a relational database management system developed by Microsoft. It is a scaled-down version of Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or 2000 which is free for non-commercial use as well as certain limited commercial use. It was introduced at Microsoft TechEd in May 1999, and was included as part of Microsoft Office 2000 Developer Edition. Its successor, SQL Server Express was released in November 2005. Vendor support of MSDE ended on April 8, 2008.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a free and open-source graphical subsystem originally developed by Microsoft for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF, previously known as "Avalon", was initially released as part of .NET Framework 3.0 in 2006. WPF uses DirectX and attempts to provide a consistent programming model for building applications. It separates the user interface from business logic, and resembles similar XML-oriented object models, such as those implemented in XUL and SVG.

Microsoft Windows SDK, and its predecessors Platform SDK, and .NET Framework SDK, are software development kits (SDKs) from Microsoft that contain documentation, header files, libraries, samples and tools required to develop applications for Microsoft Windows and .NET Framework. Platform SDK specializes in developing applications for Windows 2000, XP and Windows Server 2003. .NET Framework SDK is dedicated to developing applications for .NET Framework 1.1 and .NET Framework 2.0. Windows SDK is the successor of the two and supports developing applications for Windows XP and later, as well as .NET Framework 3.0 and later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Petzold</span> American computer programmer

Charles Petzold is an American programmer and technical author on Microsoft Windows applications. He is also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and was named one of Microsoft's seven Windows Pioneers.

Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS) is a discontinued source control program oriented towards small software development projects. Like most source control systems, SourceSafe creates a virtual library of computer files. While most commonly used for source code, SourceSafe can handle any type of file in its database, but older versions were shown to be unstable when used to store large amounts of non-textual data, such as images and compiled executables.

In Microsoft Windows applications programming, OLE Automation is an inter-process communication mechanism created by Microsoft. It is based on a subset of Component Object Model (COM) that was intended for use by scripting languages – originally Visual Basic – but now is used by several languages on Windows. All automation objects are required to implement the IDispatch interface. It provides an infrastructure whereby applications called automation controllers can access and manipulate shared automation objects that are exported by other applications. It supersedes Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), an older mechanism for applications to control one another. As with DDE, in OLE Automation the automation controller is the "client" and the application exporting the automation objects is the "server".

C# and Visual Basic .NET are the two primary languages used to program on the .NET Framework.

Microsoft Build Engine, or MSBuild, is a set of free and open-source build tools for managed code under the Common Language Infrastructure as well as native C and C++ code. It was first released in 2003 and was a part of .NET Framework. MSBuild is included with Visual Studio, but can also be run independently through MSBuild's command-line interface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual Basic (classic)</span> Event-driven programming language

The original Visual Basic is a third-generation event-driven programming language from Microsoft known for its Component Object Model (COM) programming model first released in 1991 and declared legacy during 2008. Microsoft intended Visual Basic to be relatively easy to learn and use. Visual Basic was derived from BASIC and enables the rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, access to databases using Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects, or ActiveX Data Objects, and creation of ActiveX controls and objects.

Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) is a set of development tools available in the form of a Visual Studio add-in and a runtime that allows Microsoft Office 2003 and later versions of Office applications to host the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR) to expose their functionality via .NET.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual Studio</span> Code editor and IDE

Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Store and Microsoft Silverlight. It can produce both native code and managed code.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.NET Framework</span> Software platform developed by Microsoft

The .NET Framework is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until being superseded by the cross-platform .NET project. It includes a large class library called Framework Class Library (FCL) and provides language interoperability across several programming languages. Programs written for .NET Framework execute in a software environment named the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR is an application virtual machine that provides services such as security, memory management, and exception handling. As such, computer code written using .NET Framework is called "managed code". FCL and CLR together constitute the .NET Framework.

References

  1. Massi, Beth (23 February 2010). "Dotfuscator Gets Better and Still Free in Visual Studio". msdn.com. Microsoft, Inc. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
  2. "Microsoft and PreEmptive Solutions announce enhanced version of Dotfuscator Community Edition to be included in Microsoft Visual Studio". NFV NEWS.
  3. Richardson, Chris (2008). COBOL and Visual Basic on .NET: A Guide for the Reformed Mainframe Programmer. New York: Apress. p. 636. ISBN   9781430207726.
  4. Johnson, Bruce (2012). Professional Visual Studio 2012. Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons. p. 877. ISBN   9781118416488.
  5. Patrick, Tim; Craig, John Clark (2006). Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc. p. 34. ISBN   9780596101770.

Further reading