C# App Decompiling question

[Barry]

Hi

Is it possible to decompile a C# developed .exe file (release version)

Note: i am not interested in decompiling any app, but want to know if this
can be done, cause i often send my app in debug versions, to clients who
have not yet paid for the job, need to know the possibilities.

TIA
Barry

 

[Ilya Albrekht]

Yea, it's quite easy to do. The only trouble will be variable names, but
all functions, flasses and namespaces will be normal.

Minimal solution is to use Dotfuscator. You can find it in
Tools->Dotfuscator in VS2008.

 

[Jason Newell]

Barry,

You need to download "Reflector for .NET" at
http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet. It will demonstrate how easy it is
to reverse engineer .NET apps. You can also use ildasm.exe to decompile
to IL code, change it, and ilasm.exe to recompile.

Jason Newell
www.jasonnewell.net

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Is it possible to decompile a C# developed .exe file (release version)

Yes. The easiest thing is to try it yourself on your own code.

Note: i am not interested in decompiling any app, but want to know if this
can be done, cause i often send my app in debug versions, to clients who
have not yet paid for the job, need to know the possibilities.

What exactly are you worried about? My own view is that once you've
seen the software, it would usually take more time to reverse engineer
it and support it from the decompiled code than to rewrite.

 

[Lloyd Dupont]

What exactly are you worried about? My own view is that once you've

seen the software, it would usually take more time to reverse engineer
it and support it from the decompiled code than to rewrite.

So totaly agree on that.
I like the way you put it simply and clearly as well!

 

[Barry]

Hi

Thank you guys for your quick and informative replies.

I am not interested in any tools for decompiling i just wanted to know if
this is possible on a Release Version. I have tried Dotfuscator, but not
interested to pay extra for their full-version.

TIA
Barry

 

[Ilya Albrekht]

Hi, I've seen opensource free Dotfuscator.

Hi

Thank you guys for your quick and informative replies.

I am not interested in any tools for decompiling i just wanted to know if
this is possible on a Release Version. I have tried Dotfuscator, but not
interested to pay extra for their full-version.

TIA
Barry

 

[Henning Krause [MVP - Exchange]]

Hi Barry,

IMHO the dotfusctator community edition does not really protect your code.
It's rather easy to read. Plus, your stacktraces will be messed up because
all the methods have been renamed.

Kind regards,
Henning Krause

 

[Andrew Faust]

You can also use ildasm.exe to decompile to IL code, change it, and

ilasm.exe to recompile

It's even easier. There's a nice add-in to Reflector that will do this for
you. It will even let you add new code to a single function and rebuild the
assembly.

Andrew Faust

 

[LogicNP]

Its very easy - just use Reflector. To prevent decompilation, use an obfuscator. Look at Crypto Obfuscator which provides strong protection.