How to: Protect Delphi File (.exe)

[brutser]

Hi all! First of all let me say what a nice forum you have!

And now after saying something nice, here comes the question :

 

I have several application created with Delphi 2010 and XE2, but I need to protect the code from reverse engineering and also I need to protect the application itself.

Can you experts suggest me the best software for this situation?

 

And we finish with something nice again:

Thank you very much for all your kind suggestions!

[kao]

You can't protect your code from the skilled & determined reverser. What you can do, is to stop beginners and slow down intermediate level reversers. The sooner you accept this as a fact, the better.

Dotfix NiceProtect has special support for Delphi executables. Properly implemented Themida & VMProtect Virtual Machines are very hard to reverse. So, I'd start by looking at those protectors.

And whatever protector you choose to buy, make sure to study manual in details - badly applied protection is very easy to remove. If in doubt - ask the protector support team for help.

Good luck!

[simple]

Here's my take : ) In the fantasy world of the DRM devs/product, no one uses antivirus & everyone has a watercooled machine w/64 extra cores to spare, they pack/virtualize their product then ride off into the sunset.In reality, everyone uses an AV & if it tells them not to run something - they won't. They also have an i5/i7 cpu, running so much garbage in the background there's little/no resources to spare.

Using these products will give you positives on at least 5-10 AV's. Then, your code will get slowed down to the point where many won't want to use it. When u complain, well, the drm devs don't like talking about this.Even noob devs can write a few hundred lines for a crypto loader and distro decryption keys. Or server/hardware checks. This is 10x better, cheaper, safer, faster etc than any drm product.IMHO - Every industry has to deal w/counterfeiters, not just us. Like any other industry, if a competitor, be it legit or counterfeiter is competing, you have to make yours better to keep ur d!ck up, not try to protect it. That's the free market.

[Alzri2]

There is no way (literally) to guarantee that ur software won't get cracked !

However, from my personal experience, only one thing can give u SOME time to reach the customers (if it's gonna be on the internet) before it gets cracked ...

 

This thing is called: "a boring protection"; that means a packed app (to stop newbies) with a looooooong algorithm, and taking out the possibility of patching it.

This would give at least one year (so u've already gained many customers), then u have to make new developments to give customers the motivation to buy the newer version (with enhanced protection of course )

Edited April 14, 2015 by Alzri2

[NOP]

This thing is called: "a boring protection"; that means a packed app (to stop newbies) with a looooooong algorithm, and taking out the possibility of patching it.

 

Many patches use a code cave which runs after decryption then jumps to the OEP after patching so patching a packed app can be straightforward

A packed app does not guarantee anything, including the possibility of patching so only stops the newbies with little knowledge

[Alzri2]

 

 

Many patches use a code cave which runs after decryption

I know what an inline patch is

 

You just didn't get the definition I wrote of "a boring protection" which is packed + long algorithm + unpatchable

I didn't say the dev. would guarantee his app to not get patched by using a packer

Also I didn't mean by "taking out the possibility of patching it" to depend on the packer but smth like demo application that can't get patched cuz there is no function to patch !

 

Afterall, there is a game from UBISoft which has been cracked by buying it to get full functionality first (game levels' files) !

[NetLuis]

bakalım.

[Reasen]

Shielden Safengine is my favorite packer, is pretty good. Try it.