Can Visual Basic 2005 be decompiled?

[Bruno Piovan]

Will Microsoft still allow .net codes to be decompiled in version 2005?

thanks!
Bruno

 

[Carlos J. Quintero [.NET MVP]]

Hi Bruno,

Yes, you need to use obfuscators.

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET, VB6, VB5 and VBA
You can code, design and document much faster.
Free resources for add-in developers:
http://www.mztools.com

 

[Bruno Piovan]

Microsoft is great!

Hi Bruno,

Yes, you need to use obfuscators.

--

Best regards,

Carlos J. Quintero

MZ-Tools: Productivity add-ins for Visual Studio .NET, VB6, VB5 and VBA
You can code, design and document much faster.
Free resources for add-in developers:
http://www.mztools.com

 

[Bruno Piovan]

We spend a lot of time and money to develop out applications and just sit
and see people laughing because they have your source code, we can use these
"obfuscators" that is not 100% and are not free....

so, if we want to protect our investiments will we need to compile our codes
in unmanaged c++??

Bruno

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Will Microsoft still allow .net codes to be decompiled in version 2005?

Microsoft won't allow it, and it's illegal to do it, however, it's possible.
Thus I don't see such a big problem. I suggest to use an obfuscator (VS.NET
includes a light edition of the Preemptive obfuscator).

 

[Brian Henry]

it's not microsofts fault, its the way CLR's work.. Java is the same way,
and C++ is not unreversable either just a little harder.

 

[Cor Ligthert]

Bruno,

Every code can be decompiled, however in most countries it is not allowed.

At least in the EU it is allowed in some occasions, however read good the
law for that before that you do a crime.

Cor

 

[m.posseth]

Every code can be decompiled, however in most countries it is not
I have never seen a true VB6 decompiler ( executable compiled in native
code with optimizations on , i know that p code can be partially decompiled
however even that is garbage ) But they make it verry easy to decompile a
..Net executable ,,, just as easy as you find C# to VB en vice versa
converters you find lots of .Net decompilers

For a programmer working in a concurent market it is a must to invest in a
obfuscator ,,,,,,, i feel that MS should deliver a full featured version
with VS ( we pay enough for it i guess )


just my 2 cents

Michel Posseth [MCP]

 

[Robin Tucker]

But to what end? What exactly are you preventing? It has always been
possible for someone motivated enough to come along and look at your
software. If you are worried about copy protection, I'm afraid it doesn't
exist. The best you can do is make it work with a USB dongle or something.
Someone, somewhere, highly motivated, will crack even that, with obfuscation
or without it, in VB, C++ or ASM, it doesn't matter.

If, on the other hand, you have some super new algorithms or techniques you
want to protect, then I'm afraid the best you can do there is try your luck
in the software patents lottery (our company does!).

I have never seen a true VB6 decompiler ( executable compiled in native
code with optimizations on , i know that p code can be partially
decompiled however even that is garbage ) But they make it verry easy to
decompile a .Net executable ,,, just as easy as you find C# to VB en vice
versa converters you find lots of .Net decompilers

For a programmer working in a concurent market it is a must to invest in a
obfuscator ,,,,,,, i feel that MS should deliver a full featured version
with VS ( we pay enough for it i guess )


just my 2 cents

Michel Posseth [MCP]

Bruno,

Every code can be decompiled, however in most countries it is not
allowed.

At least in the EU it is allowed in some occasions, however read good the
law for that before that you do a crime.

Cor

 

[Chris Dunaway]

If, on the other hand, you have some super new algorithms or techniques you
want to protect, then I'm afraid the best you can do there is try your luck
in the software patents lottery (our company does!).

I think this is the important point. A proprietary algorithm or
encryption technique is about the only thing that needs protecting.
Your database table structure and data access code has probably already
been done many times by many developers.

I suspect that the OP was concerned about someone using his product
without paying for it. The largest software houses (Microsoft,
Borland, EAGames, etc.) have long struggled for effect piracy control,
but no matter what they do, invariably, a crack is released shortly
after (sometimes the same day!) a product is released. The best you
can do is to protect your ideas through copyrights and patents and just
make it as difficult as possible to reverse engineer the code.

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Chris,

I think this is the important point. A proprietary algorithm or
encryption technique is about the only thing that needs protecting.
Your database table structure and data access code has probably already
been done many times by many developers.

That's exactly what I am thinking. For these special cases, 3rd party
colutions for code/IL/... encryption can be used, or you can put the
relevant pieces into a web service if this is a viable solution.

 

[Jonathan Allen]

That's why the invented license agreements. And as others have said, over
and over again, there is no such thing as a language that cannot be
decompiled.