PreEmptive Extends Free Access to Dotfuscator for WP7 Plus New WP8/WinRT Plans

December 27, 2012 4526 Views Sebastian Holst

PreEmptive Solutions is pleased to announce our extended support for Windows Phone and WinRT apps. The specifics are as follows: Dotfuscator for Windows Phone 7: PreEmptive Solutions will be extending complimentary access to Dotfuscator for Windows Phone 7 through April, 2013. This means that existing users will continue to have access to world-class obfuscation for their WP7 apps; also, new users will continue to have complimentary access as well. Dotfuscator Professional: Dotfuscator Professional currently supports obfuscation for Windows Phone 7 (WP7), Windows Phone 8 (WP8) and WinRT. The professional SKU will soon include the injection of application instrumentation for WP8 and WinRT as well (WP7 is already supported). This professional SKU also supports all flavors and versions of the .NET Framework beyond mobile including Windows 8. Announcement Dotfuscator for Windows Phone and WinRT: This new version of Dotfuscator will be available in early 2013 and will support all modern surfaces including WP7, WP8 and WinRT apps. Special pricing: This WP/WinRT version of Dotfuscator, let’s call it Dotfuscator WW for now, will be offered in two ways; one for the individual hobbyist or “moonlighter” and another for development teams requiring higher levels of support and more flexible deployment options. In both cases, pricing will be set at a significantly lower price point as compared to our standard Professional SKU (due to the unique nature of this “consumer-focused” market as well as the limited functionality of the Dotfuscator WW SKU, e.g. it only operates on WinRT and Windows Phone apps). Conclusion For those developers targeting Windows Phone 7 - you are all set through April 2013. Look for Dotfuscator for WinRT and Windows Phone in 2013 that offers IP protection across all of Microsoft's modern surfaces priced to accommodate the "modern developer." Can’t wait to protect your WP8 or WinRT code? Contact us at sales@preemptive.com and I’m sure we will be able to work something out. FAQ: Will my Dotfuscator for WP7 expire at the end of 2012? No – it will expire on 4/30/2013. If I am targeting WP7 and obfuscating with Dotfuscator WP7, will my app run on a WP8 phone? Yes! When will Dotfuscator for WP and WINRT be available? We are not committing to a specific date at this time, but the date will be well before the expiry of Dotfuscator for WP7 – developers will have plenty of time to make the transition if they so desire. Is there any support for Windows Phone 8 or WinRT today? Yes, Dotfuscator Professional supports these and all other .NET flavors. For pricing and availability, you can contact sales@preemptive.com. Will there be a free version of Dotfuscator for Windows Phone after 4/30/2013? Only Dotfuscator Community Edition (CE) included with Visual Studio will be free after 4/30/2013. Dotfuscator CE 2012 (the version embedded inside Visual Studio 2012) can obfuscate Windows Phone assemblies, but it cannot automatically consume XAP files and so there are additional steps required to make this work. Dotfuscator CE 2012 cannot obfuscate WinRT apps at all. What about instrumentation and exception monitoring? There has been no complimentary access to PreEmptive’s Runtime Intelligence Service since Microsoft discontinued its funding for the Windows Phone development community. However, if a developer injects exception monitoring specifically (versus feature tracking) via Dotfuscator, developers can now take advantage of PreEmptive Analytics for TFS that is included as a part of Visual Studio and TFS 2012. If you don’t already use TFS, check with Microsoft as they have a number of very attractive campaigns to make TFS available at no cost to small development teams. Of course, for a subscription fee, PreEmptive Solutions supports session, feature, user and exception monitoring and analytics across all .NET runtimes and devices as well as JavaScript, C++, Java and Android. For more information on PreEmptive Analytics, visit www.preemptive.com/pa Will Dotfuscator for WinRT and Windows Phone be able to obfuscate or instrument other .NET applications? No. The full Dotfuscator Professional will be required. What is the difference between a development team license and a hobbyist license? The final details have not been published yet, but the distinction should be fairly intuitive; if you are developing an app on your own or even with a few buddies to see if you can make a mark in this new and exciting world of modern apps – and you’re doing this outside of your “day job” – you are most definitely a hobbyist – no matter how successful your work may be – and we hope it is wildly successful. If you’re building an app for your employer – then you’re going to require a development team option (and you’re going to want it too for your own requirements). We will of course be crystal clear on all of this as we officially release Dotfuscator WW and, as always, if you have any immediate questions on this, email sales@preemptive.com and someone will get back to you promptly.

The Secret to Effective In-App Protection

Gartner calls In-App Protection “crucial” in their July 2019 Market Guide for In-App Protection In-App Protection. The guide’s summary advises security and risk management leaders to “take due care in protecting their application clients” in order to avoid “security failure.”

This raises the question – what constitutes “due care?” Obviously, no development organization looks to recklessly expose their applications or sensitive data to attack or compromise. On the other hand, over-engineered (or poorly engineered) security controls can quickly lead to excessive development costs, performance and quality issues, and, ultimately, unacceptable user experiences. While terms and terminology may vary, there is broad consensus on how to best define “due care” for any given application/user scenario.

If you don’t follow application security closely, you might think of application obfuscation and symbol renaming as being synonymous – and with good reason. Many platforms and languages, like .NET, Java, and JavaScript have popular obfuscators that do little else--our own Dotfuscator Community Edition for .NET and ProGuard for Java are good examples. However, obfuscation is far more than symbol renaming – and in-app protection is far more than obfuscation. Much of this expansion has been driven by new security requirements, shifting attack vectors, the rise of mobile and IoT computing and, lastly, the growing recognition inside regulations and legislation of the exposure that can result from inadequately protected software.

PreEmptive has partnered with Microsoft for 16 years and we’ve been involved with .NET since before version 1.0 shipped. From that perspective, it’s hard for us to pinpoint a time where the energy and enthusiasm in the .NET community has been higher than it is now. Over the past few years, Microsoft has put together the annual .NET Conf, completely online with viewers, participants, and local events all over the world. The event is virtual and streamed live over three days.

The big news at this year's .NET Conf was the launch of .NET Core 3, the next step in the continued evolution of .NET. .NET Core 3 is a huge effort, with many moving parts, and Microsoft announced many related releases to support it. Highlights for us included:

Search for lockpicking and you’ll see that there’s no shortage of suppliers ready to serve locksmiths and hobbyists, each community having a perfectly legitimate need. Is there any reason to believe that burglars don’t shop the same sites?

Hackers are developers and they have a long history of enthusiastically embracing and adapting development (and DevOps) innovations to speed their work, extend their reach, and ship software – the only difference is that they’re more likely to use those development tools and platforms on YOUR software rather than on their own. Static code analysis tools, debuggers, and even public bug tracking databases are all go-to hacker resources.

Can you tell the difference? Exception or the norm?

Of course, everyone is “for security” in principle. The hard question that each organization has to answer for themselves is “how much is enough?” Over-engineering is (by definition) excessive, and over-engineering application security can, in fact, be devastating as overly-complex algorithms, architectures and processes can compromise user experience, degrade performance and slow development velocity. On the other hand, punishment is swift for organizations that cut corners and do not effectively secure their applications, their data and, most importantly their users and business stakeholders. Finding and maintaining that balance can be time consuming and, because you can never be sure you’ve gotten it exactly right, it can also be a thankless job.

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