SmartAssembly: obfuscate NetCore and NetStandard

Joost

We are using SmartAssembly for our .NET projects and would like to obfuscate our NetCore and NetStandard projects to.

Please could you inform us about the possibilities?

Best Regards,
Joost

Russell D

Hi @Joost these are not currently supported, but are on the backlog to be tackled after C#7, Portable PDB and high DPI support. I'm afraid we have no ETA currently though.

xantari

There are other obfuscator products out there that already support .NET Core 2.0, .NET Standard, C# 7 and portable PDB support. When are you guys going get a jump on this?

Russell D

The answer is still the same unfortunately, but C#7 support should be out in the DeveloperBundle shortly, along with portable pdb support. Core 2.0 is next on the list and won't be far behind.

Joost

Thank you for the update.
We hope development will start soon.

Best regards,
Joost Mulder

Russell D

Sorry for not adding this earlier, but C#7 beta support was released last week: https://forum.red-gate.com/discussion/82191/reflector-9-3-has-been-released.

The next release of the profilers will include this updated support as well.

faysal

@Russell D,

Any updates and ETA on .NET Core yet?

Russell D

The .NET Core support has been put back I'm afraid. It's still planned but it won't be early Q1 as originally aimed .

kulov

Hi,

Any update on the .NET Core support?

Joost

Hi,
We would like to be updated to.
Thank you.

RichardL

Hi @kulov & @Joost

Thank you both for your posts. 

I've checked and although this is still being worked on but there isn't a set time frame on it yet. 

Kind regards

Richard Lynch. 

Jens

Does the support for .netCore goes along with the support of mergeing .netstandard targeted libraries?

RichardL

Hi @Jens

Thanks for your post. 

It is being worked on but with no solid time frame yet involved. 

Kind regards

Richard. 

Jens

This is very sad, because lot of competitors do support this since quite some time.
And since we are all software developers, we all know what is meant with "no solid time frame".
Haveing a closer look at the release history of the SA Product, it does give me the impression that Redgate is focussing very much on Smartassembly product (since quite a wile).

So, this forces us to switch to a competitors product. Unfortunately.

Joost

This is true.
We can wait for a period. After that we are forced to switch to.

Russell D

Jens said:

And since we are all software developers, we all know what is meant with "no solid time frame".

I can't disagree with any of your comments, other than this one.

Whilst I am not going to give concrete dates, we're hoping to get a preview for you this Friday. Take this with a pinch of salt but thats what we're aiming for. It will - at this stage - likely just be a video, we'll then look at a Beta if there is enough appetite.

I don't suppose I'm really going to change anyones mind if they've decided to switch but without going into the low level details, it's largely been held up by trying to solve a number of issues around portable pdbs, and unfortunately we haven't done that to our liking yet.

kulov

Hi Russell,

None of us can probably imagine how complex support for .NET Core and portable PDBs actually is. Especially with a moving target like that. You all have our admirations for tackling this problem for us.
In today's world we are pushed to move fast and adopt fast in order to beat the competition and please the customer. When critical component that we depend on is blocking us from innovating this is definitely a problem.
Please get the MVP product out when possible but also keeps updated with progress and ETA so we can handle customer expectations better.

Thank you,
Martin Kulov

Russell D

Sorry its late, I was ill on Friday.

You can view a short preview video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoSwyDrsVd4.

As I said above, we still have a number of technical problems to overcome, but it is coming.

Jens

Hi Russel

Thank you for providing us with the updates. This teaser shows that you really are working on this topic.
I do also understand that you won't mention any date i this chat here (no matter whether you can't or you are not allowed to).
Since our Productrelease(s) dates are fixed, we cannot wait for an uncertain time anymore. Also because the mergeing and obfuscating is quite a tricky thing (with lots of unexpected side effects, as we had to experience in the past), we want bring in a competitor's product (or a new version of SA) as early as possible in the development phase.
So without any reliable timeframe we have to face the fact, that it might is not in time for our development and need to start evaluating some competitor's product.
When the release of SA will be early enough we will consider to continue with SA for sure, but we have to be prepared for the case if not.

We already tried to use workarounds like embedding the assemblies instead of merging. This works partially but brings other side effects. Some of them can be solved, but it feels more hacky than serious development.

Russell D

I totally understand that Jens. Hopefully we can get a release for you in time so that you don't need to change your processes, but it's understandable that you need to look around.

I think from our part we just need to be certain that we don't rush this because it is a difficult problem to solve - but I'll provide updates as and when its possible to do so.

albert_oldfield

Any further progress on this?

Jessica R

Hi @albert_oldfield,

Sorry that this isn't available yet!

.NET Core support is still being worked on. While we can't guarantee a date, we're hoping to have this ready in the next month or so.

dheinz100

Any status update for this?

RichardL

Hi @dheinz100

Thanks for your post. 

There are a few final bits to test out but once released it will be announced here in the forums. 

I hope this helps. 

CrazyMonkey01

Hi, please advise status of SmartAssembly for .NET Standard 2.0. Timeframe for selection of obfuscation tool is narrowing. Is there a way to receive status updates on this development? 

Russell D

Yes: keep an eye on this thread, as we will update it when we have more information.

CrazyMonkey01

Need a definitive timeframe for NetStandard 2.x compatible version of Smart Assembly. I would prefer to stick with Smart Assembly, but if timeframe cannot be provided or is too far out we'll be forced to use an alternate product.

hugh

We are also looking to start using smart assembly with .net core and .net standard.  Is there any even rough time frame to release or even developer release?

Jessica R

Hi all,

Thank you so much for your patience while we've worked on this!

I'm happy to report that we've released a beta version of SmartAssembly today which supports NET Core 2.0+ and .NET Standard.

The build is available from Help>Check for updates.

Please note that because it is a beta release, some features for .NET Core and .NET Standard are still limited. Please see here for more details and clarification on what is currently supported: https://documentation.red-gate.com/sa6/release-notes-and-other-versions/smartassembly-6-13-release-notes  If you run into any issues, please do let us know!

PabloV

Hi,

Where can I download the beta version? The trial version available is 6.12.7.1100

I would like to do some test with .Net Core 2.1 and .Ner Standard.

Thanks!

Russell D

You can get this through CfU or here: https://download.red-gate.com/checkforupdates/SmartAssembly/SmartAssembly_6.13.3.1314.exe.