How to make .Net project practically unreadable

Question

I was wondering, if i ever make a program that i want to publish(perhaps a game), and i want to protect the code, how do i make it unreadable?

i am a student, and on my course i learn c#, i use ILSPY to see how others program games and such, but at some point it looked not like normal code, i am sure that a program had changed all the names of functions/variables/constants enz. i took a screenshot: EncryptedCode i have tried to find software that can do this, but i found it to be quite hard to find anything on the subject, if you could help me by giving me the name of a program or plugin for VS2010 that is capable of something like this,

Thank you for reading my question

The term you're looking for is obfuscation. If you search for that it will reveal a host of tools for obfuscating your .Net code — JaredPar, Mar 25 '13 at 21:28
possible duplicate of [Can I obfuscate a compiled .NET executable/assembly?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7491174/can-i-obfuscate-a-compiled-net-executable-assembly) — joce, Mar 25 '13 at 21:30
What you are looking for is `obfuscation`, have a look at http://www.preemptive.com/products/dotfuscator/overview — sa_ddam213, Mar 25 '13 at 21:30
[Best .NET obfuscation tools/strategy](http://stackoverflow.com/q/2525), [Free obfuscation tools for .NET](http://stackoverflow.com/q/805549) But like others have said, it's worthless. — Cody Gray - on strike, Mar 25 '13 at 22:09

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '13 at 21:29

It's called Obfuscation, and VS comes with Dotfuscator (it's under the Tools menu) that does basic obfuscation of type and member names, though a skilled RCE can figure it out.

More powerful obfuscation tools exist that rewrite the CIL to defeat analysis by tools like Reflector, though hardcore RCE folks can read and divine CIL directly.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 25 '13 at 21:31

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This is an example of a technique called obfuscation. If you search for a C# Obfuscator, you can find numerous examples of both free and quite expensive ones.

one such list is here: http://www.csharp411.com/net-obfuscators/

answered Mar 25 '13 at 21:31

Tyler Gill

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this list is pathetically outdated – Sten Petrov Mar 25 '13 at 21:46

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

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It's called Obfuscation. VS has a built in tool to handle this. However it is not very effective. There are paid versions that are much more effective. Such as:

A more complete list can be found here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1988451/net-obfuscation

edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

Community

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answered Mar 25 '13 at 21:28

Pete Garafano

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No; VS does not have a built-in tool. Some versions of VS include a free edition of a third-party tool. – SLaks Mar 25 '13 at 21:30
@SLaks I thought every version of VS came with .Net Obfuscator Community Edition. – Pete Garafano Mar 25 '13 at 21:31

How to make .Net project practically unreadable

3 Answers3