Monitor method call

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sharon
  • Start date Start date
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Sharon

Hi all,
Is there a way to monitor all assembly method calls?
Without placing monitor code at each method start.
Thanks,
Sharon.
 
Thanks for your reply Jeronen.
I know profilers can monitor method calls at runtime.
But how is it done?
I need it for security features.
 
Sharon said:
Thanks for your reply Jeronen.
I know profilers can monitor method calls at runtime.
But how is it done?
Click to expand...

There are two main approaches: instrumented, and sampling.

An instrumented profiler injects code at the entry and exit for each
method that you want profiled. A sampling profiler simply inspects the
instruction pointer of the executing program at regular intervals.

The former gives you much more precise information, at the expense of
overhead. A sampling profile can disturb the execution of the program
much less, but can only provide broad statistics regarding execution.

It's not uncommon to find a single profiler that supports both approaches.
I need it for security features.
Click to expand...

That seems unlikely. Usually, when someone posts here saying they need
some unusual introspective feature in their code "for security features"
what they really mean is that they are trying to implement some copy
protection scheme. All copy protection schemes are doomed to failure
from the outset.

If you have some other "security feature" in mind, you should be more
specific so that you can get better advice. If you are in fact thinking
of a copy protection scheme, do yourself a favor and don't waste any
more time on trying to implement this particular approach. Even if it
works, you will spend far more time implementing it than some hacker
will breaking it.

Pete
 
Sharon said:
Is there a way to monitor all assembly method calls?
Without placing monitor code at each method start.
Click to expand...

You could weave in that code in using an AOP tool
like AspectDNG.

Arne
 
Hi Pete,
I wasn't even thinking in the direction of copy protection.
This is a server app. and there is no need for copy protection.
Its not even obfuscated.
What i actually need it for is to check the user method call permissions.
And it seems that AOP is the way to go.
 
Hi John & Arne.
Do all AOP solutions inject code after compilation?
Is there a way to do this at runtime?
Thanks,
Sharon.
 
Sharon said:
Thanks for your reply Jeronen.
I know profilers can monitor method calls at runtime.
But how is it done?
I need it for security features.
Click to expand...
Then it might be called Code Access Security, depending on what you're
trying to achieve.
 
Code Access Security sounds right.
I need to check the user permission to invoke the method.
I'm trying AOP now.
 
Thanks Arne,
I'm checking the pros and cons of these 2 methods.
And I will definitely check out Spring.NET.
Sharon.
 
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