views:

149

answers:

4
+5  Q: 

Protecting DLL's

Hi All

Quite a few people have really taken interest in the dll's ivé sent them, and they're not the type that should be given away for free too often...

I was just wondering, if I were to sell my components, user controls etc, how would I go about protecting them, in terms of ownership/encrypting code (if possible) etc.. What steps have you taken to help prevent people using yours without paying for them?

Thank you very much!

jt

+3  A: 

Well, I will definitely put my copy right,company name and production name information to my DLL. Whenever anybody use it,those information still appear on my DLL. And if possible,I will try to use Dotfuscator tool from visual Studio which helps to obfuscate my DLL.

Wonde
I wouldn't rely on the copyright, company name etc to indicate to customers that the assembly is yours.If you want to guarantee that customers can identify that the code is yours, give your assembly a strong name by signing it with a public/private key pair. (Using the 'sn' command line tool)That way customers can check that the assmeblies they are using were built by you, and have not been tampered with in any way.
Ash
+4  A: 

The only truly secure way to protect your dll is not to give it to them. Expose it instead via a web-service etc (obviously this doesn't work in all cases). Every obfuscator can be broken with patience. Think how much the games industry spends on this, and things are broken / reverse-engineered within days, sometimes hours.

"Lawyers" may serve as a layer of protection, and obfuscation will certainly discourage idle browsing. But a determined hacker (for example, for commercial illegal spying) will be able to get at your code eventually.

I guess you simply need to weigh the costs and benefits...

Marc Gravell
If only all computers had a permanent internet connection...
lucifer
I'm having trouble marking an answer. God I wish i could mark both as an answer
lucifer
+5  A: 

Hi,

You can use any commercial obfuscater which encrypt your functionality and giving error if decompile.

Here i have the whole list which are available in market. I used many of them some are just encrypt string, public method, private methods,properties and all. Just go through it.

see the whole list and article

prashant
Ooh! nice :) Thank you!
lucifer
welcome and if found some problem comment there.i have also added the links on all the tools.thanks
prashant
A: 

I heard DLLs can't be decoded is it true?

awsedr
I don't think that's true at all.
lucifer