how to protect source code of an application

  • Thread starter Thread starter melanie_23
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melanie_23

Hello!

At my company, we are in the process of deciding which programming
language to take between JSP and ASP.NET to produce dynamic web sites
for our clients. By now, all the major advantages tend to favor
ASP.NET : performance, good fit with SQL Server/Microsoft systems,
habilities of the development staff with VB.NET, ...

But there is still one point that gives me a break: I read some books
on ASP.NET in order to find something but I still have no clue. With
Java, I can write some classes(beans, servlets) and put the result in a
JSP page. All these classes will be compiled in a .class file (not a
..java file with the source), deployed on the client web server, and the
client will not be able to modify the core behaviour because they don't
have the source file (.java) and the only source files they have (.jsp)
are just HTML display.

Is there a standard in ASP.NET to write the code in a more
"object-oriented" way that won't let the client (on which the server is
installed) read and modify source code (at a certain layer because I
know you can't hide everything...)?

Thanks,

Melanie
 
In ASP.NET 2.0 you can precompile everything and deploy little more than DLL
files if that's your desire. If you're still paranoid about people
decompiling your DLLs then you can obfuscate them to make such a task very
difficult.

You can use the obfuscator that's built into ASP.NET 1.x and above, or you
could use one of these 3rd party obfuscators which generally claim to be
better:
http://www.lesser-software.com/ilobf.htm
http://www.junglecreatures.com/DesktopDefault.aspx
http://www.9rays.net/cgi-bin/components.cgi?act=1&cid=86
http://www.remotesoft.com/salamander/obfuscator.html
http://www.semdesigns.com/products/obfuscators/csharpobfuscator.html
http://www.wiseowl.com/products/products.aspx
http://www.abderaware.com/WhitePapers/Obfuscator.htm
 
Hi,

melanie_23 said:
Hello!

At my company, we are in the process of deciding which programming
language to take between JSP and ASP.NET to produce dynamic web sites
for our clients. By now, all the major advantages tend to favor
ASP.NET : performance, good fit with SQL Server/Microsoft systems,
habilities of the development staff with VB.NET, ...

But there is still one point that gives me a break: I read some books
on ASP.NET in order to find something but I still have no clue. With
Java, I can write some classes(beans, servlets) and put the result in a
JSP page. All these classes will be compiled in a .class file (not a
.java file with the source), deployed on the client web server, and the
client will not be able to modify the core behaviour because they don't
have the source file (.java) and the only source files they have (.jsp)
are just HTML display.

Is there a standard in ASP.NET to write the code in a more
"object-oriented" way that won't let the client (on which the server is
installed) read and modify source code (at a certain layer because I
know you can't hide everything...)?

Thanks,

Melanie
Click to expand...

In addition to Steve's answer, I want to add that it is also extremely
easy to decompile Java class files.

The option of publishing the CS source files always sounded like a
strange idea to me, except in special cases (when you want to publish an
open source software, or when you're debugging maybe), so I would rather
precompile before publishing.

You might also want to check the Web Application Project
http://webproject.scottgu.com/

This allows you to have the same proven structure as in VS2003
(ASP.NET1.1). I personally prefer this way of doing things.

HTH,
Laurent
 
Thank you all for your answers

In fact, I think that the compilation method explained in the link Mark
provided is just what I want to do.

It's interesting to know that you can obfuscate your code. I did not
know that. Thanks Steve.

Laurent, I will take a look at the link you provided because I really
wish to initiate a good development practice at the very beginning of
our development.

Thank you all

Melanie
 
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