Skater Today Protects .NET 7
Skater supports .NET 7 (also .NET Core 3.x) projects where the publish output is a DLL file (Framework-dependent deployment).
.NET 7 is the latest version of .NET that was released in Nov 2022. Not only is .NET 7 a much improved version of the framework compared to its predecessors, but it also introduces some of the coolest features we've seen in some of the most popular platforms and languages. This article talks about the latest updates and new features introduced in in .NET 7.0.
To further test Skater obfuscator functionality, we have added some dummy classes, methods, and properties into the Form1.cs.
Just to remind you: the main .NET 7.0 idea is to compile a Windows Forms app and then run it under any system. Not Windows only.
The .NET 7 actual application is a dll library. Its .NET source code as any other .NET framework code is compiled into CIL/MSIL. .NET 7 dll assembly contains code which the Common Language Runtime (CLR) executes. It can be disassembled (read 'hacked':) by anybody else. We still need to protect that kind of .NET assemblies by obfuscating them.
Skater supports .NET 7 projects where the publish output is a DLL file (Framework-dependent deployment). When the publish output is an EXE file that calls .NET 7.0 DLL (Self-contained deployment) the final DLL has to be obfuscated as well. There are two types of .NET 7.0 apps can be built:
Framework-dependent deployment. As the name implies, framework-dependent deployment (FDD) relies on the presence of a shared system-wide version of .NET 7 on the target system. Because .NET 7 is already present, your app is also portable between installations of .NET 7. Your app contains only its own code and any third-party dependencies that are outside of the .NET 7.0 libraries. FDDs contain .dll files that can be launched by using the dotnet utility from the command line. For example, dotnet app.dll runs an application named app.
Self-contained deployment. Unlike FDD, a self-contained deployment (SCD) doesn't rely on the presence of shared components on the target system. All components, including both the .NET 7 libraries and the .NET 7 runtime, are included with the application and are isolated from other .NET 7 applications. SCDs include an executable (such as app.exe on Windows platforms for an application named app), which is a renamed version of the platform-specific .NET 7 host, and a .dll file (such as app.dll), which is the actual application.
The .NET 7 WinForms app development is following the Self-Contained Deployment (SCD) concept.
Read instructions how Skater secures .NET 7 source codes
Just to remind you: the main .NET 7.0 idea is to compile a Windows Forms app and then run it under any system. Not Windows only.
The .NET 7 actual application is a dll library. Its .NET source code as any other .NET framework code is compiled into CIL/MSIL. .NET 7 dll assembly contains code which the Common Language Runtime (CLR) executes. It can be disassembled (read 'hacked':) by anybody else. We still need to protect that kind of .NET assemblies by obfuscating them.
Skater supports .NET 7 projects where the publish output is a DLL file (Framework-dependent deployment). When the publish output is an EXE file that calls .NET 7.0 DLL (Self-contained deployment) the final DLL has to be obfuscated as well. There are two types of .NET 7.0 apps can be built:
Framework-dependent deployment. As the name implies, framework-dependent deployment (FDD) relies on the presence of a shared system-wide version of .NET 7 on the target system. Because .NET 7 is already present, your app is also portable between installations of .NET 7. Your app contains only its own code and any third-party dependencies that are outside of the .NET 7.0 libraries. FDDs contain .dll files that can be launched by using the dotnet utility from the command line. For example, dotnet app.dll runs an application named app.
Self-contained deployment. Unlike FDD, a self-contained deployment (SCD) doesn't rely on the presence of shared components on the target system. All components, including both the .NET 7 libraries and the .NET 7 runtime, are included with the application and are isolated from other .NET 7 applications. SCDs include an executable (such as app.exe on Windows platforms for an application named app), which is a renamed version of the platform-specific .NET 7 host, and a .dll file (such as app.dll), which is the actual application.
The .NET 7 WinForms app development is following the Self-Contained Deployment (SCD) concept.
Read instructions how Skater secures .NET 7 source codes