Visual Studio Protects, Monitors .NET Applications

Visual Studio (VS) 2010 will include a new version of Dotfuscator, a tool that obfuscates application code written in languages that use the .NET Framework (managed code) to prevent reverse engineering. Dotfuscator, a stand-alone application developed by PreEmptive Solutions, has been included with all versions of VS since 2003, but the version included with 2010 adds new functionality that will allow developers to instrument an application to monitor its usage, transmit an alert and abort if tampering occurs, and set an expiration date after which the application will cease to function.

Obfuscation Helps Protect IP

With traditional native-code development, reverse engineering is a time-consuming process available only to developers with significant experience in low-level assembly language programming. Environments like the .NET Framework and Java, however, make the process considerably easier because programs running on those environments also include metadata, information about the code which is used to support important run-time features, but which also makes it easier to reverse engineer (or decompile) the code. Reverse-engineered code can expose proprietary business logic and unique algorithms, and provide insight as to how an application might be compromised.