Automating Xamarin Protection with Dotfuscator

May 10, 2017 6814 Views Joseph Sewell

This week, all eyes of the software community will be fixed on Microsoft's Build conference. Microsoft and its partners are set to announce new technologies and lay out their vision for the future of software development. Recent years have seen the narrative take a decidedly cross-platform approach. Visual Studio Code gives developers tools to create what they want no matter their OS of choice. .NET Core extends the reach of the popular .NET Framework to Mac and Linux. Finally, Xamarin, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2016, lets app developers write their app once, then publish it for Android, iOS, and Windows devices.

As a Visual Studio 2017 Premier Launch Partner, PreEmptive Solutions is pleased to announce, as part of Microsoft Build 2017, a new way to integrate Dotfuscator's protection into Xamarin apps. This new Dotfuscator-Xamarin integration has a number of advantages:

Easy setup - Developers just download an MSBuild targets file and import it into their projects with a few simple property changes. No more need to define custom targets or copy files as a post-build step!
Deep pipeline integration - The new integration automatically puts Dotfuscator into the Xamarin build pipeline, protecting apps as they're built in Visual Studio or MSBuild. Developers don't have to worry about forgetting the protection step, since it's now included as part of the build.
Incremental builds - Don't waste time reapplying Dotfuscator's protection when your project hasn't changed. The integration is smart enough to know when a build is necessary, and when it can be skipped.
Automatic configuration - Get up and running quickly: the integration creates a Dotfuscator config file automatically, with sensible defaults for the project. Instructions are provided for further configuration, including a case study of how to discover which additional identifiers (if any) need to be excluded from renaming obfuscation.
Detailed instructions - We've detailed how to use the integration with a well-known Xamarin.Forms sample. Developers can see the practical application of these instructions through an included git repo, which walks through the process step-by-step.
All major project types supported - The integration supports projects targeting Android, iOS, and Universal Windows (UWP).
Proven protection strategy - The app is protected by Dotfuscator, the industry standard .NET obfuscation and protection tool.
Free to start - The integration works not only with the commercial Dotfuscator Professional Edition, but also with Dotfuscator Community Edition (CE), which is included with Visual Studio. Developers can use the integration to quickly discover the capabilities of Dotfuscator's protection.

To get started, see Integrating Dotfuscator's Protection into Your Xamarin Apps in Visual Studio. There you can read the step-by-step instructions, as well as download the necessary MSBuild targets file.

We plan to keep introducing features like this, to make the protection process easier and more accurate, for Xamarin and all other kinds of apps. Stay up-to-date with the latest Dotfuscator features by visiting the Dotfuscator Downloads page. For announcements and other information, keep an eye on our blog and follow our Twitter account, @PreEmptive.

Tools don’t hack apps, hackers do: Securing Android apps against Frida

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.

JavaScript is everywhere. It’s currently the world’s most popular programming language; as noted by GitHub, JavaScript has the highest number of contributors and repositories, handily outpacing other alternatives such as Python, PHP and Ruby.

The problem with all this popularity? Massive amounts of great open-source code create opportunities for both in-house development teams and malicious actors. The sheer volume of JavaScript-based services means it’s not enough just design apps with security in mind — businesses must actively mitigate emerging threats by obfuscating critical code to frustrate hacker efforts.

Not sure where to start? Here’s what you need to know about the brewing storm of JavaScript attacks and the simplest ways to reduce your total risk.

Over a year ago we wrote instructions for migrating from ProGuard or DexGuard to DashO. Since that time, Google introduced R8, fundamentally changing the Android build process. Now, we have released PreEmptive Protection DashO for Android & Java, version 10.0 with a new Android Mode that is designed to work with R8. With this release, migrating from ProGuard or DexGuard to DashO is so simple that it almost doesn't need instructions - so we're posting new instructions to make that clear!

Welcome to our new instructions!

Before we begin, let's make sure we're all on the same page. We assume you are currently:

We are proud to announce the public release of PreEmptive Protection DashO for Android & Java v10.0, the next major version of DashO, our powerful Android & Java obfuscation and app protection product.

This release has major changes to our Android support. We've blogged about R8 and Google's build architecture changes before, and this new version of DashO works together with R8 to protect Android apps and libraries. R8 does what it is best at: minification (renaming & removal) and performance (build and runtime), while DashO provides strong protection: Control Flow, String Encryption, and runtime Checks for Tamper, Debug, Root, Emulators, and more. Together you get the best of both worlds.

To accomplish this new integration, we rethought DashO from the ground up, creating a brand new Android Mode with big changes to UI, build-time behaviors, and the way DashO integrates into a Gradle build. It's DashO unlike you've ever known it: even easier to integrate, easier to understand and configure, and easier to keep up to date as your code and Android evolve.

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