Development of a commercial application never stops when the last line of code has been written. Delivering the product to potential clients is highly important as well. Most programs are distributed as trial or evaluation versions. Nonetheless, weak and vulnerable protection mechanisms may jeopardize the security of your source code and enable competitors or hackers get access to the full functionality of your application, thus stultifying your efforts and time invested into development. The choice of the right protection tool that will satisfy your specific needs may be anything but easy. If you are looking for a rock-stable, reliable and elegant code protection solution, make sure not to miss "Spices.Fortress".
May 16, 2007: 9Rays.Net is glad to announce the release of Spices.Fortress.
Spices.Fortress for C# 2.0 is a protection tool (not an obfuscator) for C# 2.0 applications. The goal of Spices.Fortress is to protect C# applications from unauthorized use by limiting the functionality of evaluation or trial versions. Applications protected by Spices.Fortress work as evaluation versions, but as soon as they are unlocked with a secure Fortress Key, they start operating as fully functional versions. It should be noted that Spices.Fortress does not protect .NET class libraries, but .NET Windows Forms applications only.
Spices.Fortress advantages
- protection of .NET applications, not their obfuscation; - protection of the data needed to run the application, not the code itself; - use of only native (but characteristic of C#) means; - the protected executable is natively compiled by C# (hence no compatibility problems); - no external processing of C#-produced protected executables; - the Key is not checked but is used to restore the protected functionality; - each Key contains personal data, therefore each Key may be easily identified.
Overview
Spices.Fortress does not in any way obfuscate, but protects .NET applications.
When protecting applications, Spices.Fortress uses only native C# means, i.e. no external processing of C#-produced executables takes place. It is important that it is not the code, but the data needed to run the application is protected. In .NET Windows Forms applications data is a link between events and event handlers. The difference between the trial and the registered versions is based on the use of different event handlers for trial and registered versions of the protected application. The trial version uses one set of event handlers, whereas the registered version uses another one.
Spices.Fortress protects the forms of C# projects on the source level, which means that Spices.Fortress temporarily modifies the source code and then, after recompilation, the application is protected.
When applied, Spices.Fortress modifies the source code of the form in such a manner that after re-compiling each event protected by Spices.Fortress has no event handler assigned. When a protected application is started, the trial event handlers are assigned to corresponding events. If a valid Fortress Key is found, registered event handlers replace the trial ones. The protected application does not use any checking routines to choose which set of event handlers to use. Instead, it uses the data contained in the Fortress Resource and the Fortress Key to assign registered event handlers to corresponding events. To be protected by Spices.Fortress, a C# form must contain components that have events with assigned event handlers. The personal data stored in each Fortress Key allows to easily identify each valid Fortress Key.
In a nutshell, Spices.Fortress is an elegant, intuitive and affordable solution for developers seeking a better way to protect their products from unwanted intrusion and willing to have a simple, yet efficient mechanism of limiting the functionality of trial and evaluation versions of their software.
Future versions of Spices.Fortress will also support VB.NET projects.
Pricing and Availability
Spices.Fortress supports Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Vista and costs $292.95. Further information on Spices.Fortress, FAQ's, as well as its free downloadable trial version is available from: http://www.9rays.net/products/Spices.Fortress/
About 9Rays.Net
9Rays.Net consists of several groups of developers working together on several lines of products and committed to 100% customer satisfaction and top product quality. Established in 2001, the company specializes in developing applications and tools for individuals, small and medium businesses using Microsoft .NET, Borland Delphi, C++ Builder, ActiveX and a number of related technologies. Since its foundation, 9Rays.Net has been working on improving its main products, providing technical support to customers that have chosen 9Rays.Net products, and developing new trends in the area of creating stable, reliable and truly efficient applications for a wide range of popular platforms.
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NOTE TO EDITORS: Please, let us know if you have questions or would like any additional information on 9Rays.Net products. Contact Oleg Subachev at fortress@9rays.net to get more information. Full functional versions of the products are available upon request to all editors considering a review.
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