ralph
6/2/2011 1:13:00 AM
On Wed, 1 Jun 2011 11:12:36 -0700, "David Kaye"
<sfdavidkaye2@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Does anybody have a recommendation (that is EXPERIENCE) with a low-cost or
>no-cost encryption or compression program to encrypt an executable? I want
>to make it hard for someone to decompile a program I've worked many years
>creating.
>
>
Some random remarks... <g>
1) If a VB Application is compiled to Native Code using no-debug and
optimizing options there is literally no way to 'de-compile' the
application back to the original 'VB Code'.
[That and what follows is essentially true for any Windows
Applications regardless of the development platform.]
2) There are, however, many ways to reverse-engineer or ferret out
intellectual information from a compiled application. The ability to
do so depends solely on the skill, interest, and stubbornness of the
attacker.
Applications that use a particular 'Framework' such as VB's VB
Runtime, or VC's ATL or MFC can more easily be segmented into 'known'
blocks. For example, with VB it is possible to 'reconstruct' Forms,
Controls, Resources, and Classes.
With common libraries, such as ADO, no attempt is made to de-compile.
All that is needed is to identify the input and outputs.
User Controls can be simply 'stolen' and reused. (A more difficult
task.)
Algorithms can be 'reconstructed' to a degree. Depends on the over all
structure, how self-contained, the inputs, outputs, etc.
Most attackers will not attempt to 'back-track' or reconstruct all or
most of the original code whether Pascal, Delphi, C, C++, or VB - what
they will do is get blocks, functions, or objects back to some kind of
C or Assembly which they can manipulate and re-used in another project
based on one of those platforms. Once again it is not necessarily to
fully de-compile or re-engineer an application to steal intellectual
property.
-ralph