How to protect licenses

This article is about how to avoid the situation when somebody decompiles application and takes the licenses.

The possible situation

For example, I read this article[Types of Licenses] and according to instruction add the licenses to my project with code

MPlatformSDKLic.IntializeProtection();

Now, it's possible to use the project without any problems and overlays. But every person can decompile the .exe file and find the licenses.

To avoid it we recommend obfuscating your DLLs and .exe files. There are many programs on the market that can help to protect the application.

Free .Net protector

For .Net it's possible to use free open-source protector ConfuserEx.

GitHub: https://github.com/yck1509/ConfuserEx/releases

The project page: https://yck1509.github.io/ConfuserEx/

Download this application and start it. Drag and drop the required file, set the output directory and move to the "Settings" tab. 

Add a rule to <Global settings> or individual for each item, choose the preset and click protect.

The differences between presets

The original .exe file is 121 KB, while the .exe file that protects with normal preset is 136 KB. We still can decompile this .exe file but there is no information about the licenses.

With maximum preset, the size of the .exe file is 144 KB and we can't decompile it.

Also, here is a useful video lesson about how to use this obfuscator:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZUFUj6RbBw