Dependencies .Net 9

[WWWEdobrimCOM]

Hi, I have an application written in Visual Basic, with Visual Studio (it's basically a PC application in Net 9).
I opened the program and tried encrypting the strings.
Only StringsEncryption.
Everything "worked" fine, until it asked me for dependencies. But how do I find out where the entire Net 9 dependencies are? Because once, as the location Path for the dependencies, I entered the Path where the Windows X64 file is located directly in the command line (the installer needed to run Net 9 applications on Windows), but it didn't work.
Rightly from command line (Promt) it gives me an error that it cannot find the dependencies.
At one point I even tried to extract all the files from the Net 9 setup (about 55 MB), but I couldn't, I tried to do this to put all the dependencies in one folder but it was useless because I can't extract files from a setup

Thanks

[sunnamed434]

@WWWEdobrimCOM
Hi,
It's optional to provide dependencies, if I remember correctly you can just specify nothing when asked about dependencies and it would work.

By dependencies it means the dependencies that you have in your build output directory of the app, so obfuscation could be more deeper (but not always), because it can see the signatures etc., of these dependencies you use.

[sunnamed434]

You can also make libs directory in obfuscation directory and put your libraries (dependencies) there. Either simply provide the path to dependencies i.e. your output build directory or something else, or just ignore.

[WWWEdobrimCOM]

Puoi anche creare libsuna directory nella directory di offuscamento e inserirvi le tue librerie (dipendenze). Puoi semplicemente fornire il percorso delle dipendenze, ad esempio la directory di output della build o qualcos'altro, oppure ignorare.

Oh, okay, fine, but I wanted to ask, but then why didn't you protect the strings?
Sorry, maybe I'm ignorant, I'm not an expert, but once I finished the job, I went to check if the strings were protected with ILSpy. How come everything was clear?
I mean the final result in the output folder.

[sunnamed434]

That's weird, it should have protected them, can you please send me BitMono logs, maybe it will help to understand what's wrong

[WWWEdobrimCOM]

That's weird, it should have protected them, can you please send me BitMono logs, maybe it will help to understand what's wrong

[sunnamed434]

I see, and the file in output is not protected? You can see strings in the ILSpy?

[WWWEdobrimCOM]

I see, and the file in output is not protected? You can see strings in the ILSpy?

Yes, I'll send you a small example photo (where you can see the beginning clearly)

[sunnamed434]

Ok.

I'll probably try tomorrow to reproduce this problem.

[WWWEdobrimCOM]

I see, and the file in output is not protected? You can see strings in the ILSpy?

Before and After

Example using another program (but I protected everything, not just the strings)

[sunnamed434]

I see, but where is the exact string like for examples "Hello World", I see only fields.

StringsEncryption protects the exact strings, not names of the fields

[sunnamed434]

Oh, I see now, on the 2nd screenshot it protected some string, right?

[WWWEdobrimCOM]

Oh, adesso capisco, nel secondo screenshot è protetta una stringa, giusto?

In the second case, I think so, because it's a program that protects files, so it should be a string. But it was done with another program.

In the first screenshot, the plaintext strings you see are classic Visual Basic variables, like Dim ExampleString as string

Dim Hello as string
But it's strange that it doesn't protect them.

When I used older tools, like Crypto Obfuscator, these types of strings became things like: jdhhaajdjdhagwywiwhab57

Alphanumeric

Let me give you an example. In the first screenshot, there's a string (just an example) like HELLO, but it appears completely clear and visible. That is, those are all important strings that should be hidden.
Then the program uses these strings to do its job.

[sunnamed434]

I see.
So how I can reproduce this? I need .NET 9 application, Console is enough? What about Visual Basic, I need to configure something?

[WWWEdobrimCOM]

Capisco. Come posso riprodurlo? Mi serve un'applicazione .NET 9, la console è sufficiente? E Visual Basic? Devo configurare qualcosa?

If you'd like, I can show and send you a simple string application. I can do it in 5-10 minutes, but tomorrow, because I usually do it during my work breaks. If you want, I'll create a quick example, like a calculator.
If you'd like to try, I'm using Visual Studio (I don't remember which version, maybe 2019 or 2022) and I use Visual Basic apps in Net 9.
No, don't make it a console application, make it a Windows Forms Visual Basic in Net 9.

For example, you could create a Winform, then add a button (you'll find it on the left, it's visual).

Before the button (inside the code), add something like:

Dim Hello as string

Dim Ccc as string

If you double-click the button, it will enter the "click" code.

Here you could add:

Dim Kith as integer
Dim Pap as string = Hello App

msgbox(Pap)

This is a simple test, just to see if it protects the strings in this form.

[sunnamed434]

Ok, so please send me tomorrow an example application.

I'll also try to create this application by myself, probably today, to reproduce this problem.