Unable to protect single file in .net 8

VMProtect
1

I’m testing the product features of vmp to evaluate if it meets my needs, but I’m running into a problem.

Use .net 8 and vs 2022 to generate a single file and use the latest version of vmp to protect it. The protected program cannot run and there is no error message.

I don’t provide the source code because you can reproduce the problem as follows:

  1. Simply write a Hello World WPF application
  2. When publishing, select self-contain and single file
  3. Protect the generated application
    You will find that the protected file cannot be started
2

You have to protect your application before publishing.

3

It seems that I can only protect it by adding markers in the code, and cannot directly protect it using the GUI version of VMP.
Is VMP designed to not directly protect single files in. net 8, or will this feature be added in the future?

4

Your published application is just a container with required files of your application, so any modifications of this container will not protect your real code inside it. Just look at your application before publishig - usually it contains 2 files: EXE (required environment to execute dotnet) and DLL (your real code). The publishing process just merges 2 files into one, that’s all.

5

Thank you

6

Which one should I protect? Dll or exe?

7

The main module compiled with:

  1. .NET Framework (2.0 - 4.8 ) - EXE
  2. .NET Core (1.0 - 3.1) - DLL
  3. .NET (5.0 - 9.0) - DLL

About support of “dotnet publish” read this topisc.