Stunnix C/C++ Obfuscator - FAQ - Table of Contents

Questions on obfuscation technology
1.1	Is it possible to recover original file from obfuscated version?
1.2	My project consists of several files, calling functions from each other. Will Stunnix CXX-Obfus protect it correctly (i.e. will protected version of the same symbol be the same in every file)?
1.3	Suppose I protected a project with Stunnix CXX-Obfus that contains several files, and one year later I added a function to my project in one of the files. Will I have to re-obfuscate entire project? Will I have to resend new protected version of all files to the client, or I will have to send only 1 file (corresponding to changed file)?
1.4	The code I plan to obfuscate is called by code that should stay non-obfuscated. Obviously after obfuscation the "calling" code doesn't work since names of functions it calls have changed. What I have to do?
1.5	My project uses some library, and names of all functions in it start with the same string (or match some regular expression). Is there an option exclude all these symbols from obfuscation?
1.6	How can I obfuscate only certain names and keep all others unchanged?
1.7	What is compression ratio when using source compression mode?
1.8	Can you suggest any reviews of your product and competing products?
General questions
2.1	Can we have an evaluation version of Stunnix CXX-Obfus?
2.2	What documentation should I really read in order to start using Stunnix CXX-Obfus?
2.3	Is Stunnix CXX-Obfus suitable for my project?
2.4	We would like you to add some specific feature to Stunnix CXX-Obfus - it's critical for our project. Is this possible?
2.5	Is it helpful for security to obfuscate file several times (i.e. apply obfuscation to result of obfuscation)?
2.6	I've installed trial version of Stunnix CXX-Obfus. How can I use command line interface of it? Command lines listed in the manual give "perl: command not found" error.
2.7	What interface to Stunnix CXX-Obfus would you recommend - commandline or GUI? Are they equal featurewise?
2.8	What programming language Stunnix CXX-Obfus is written in?
2.9	The source code of Stunnix CXX-Obfus does not look like Perl code. Why?
General questions on using Project Manager
3.1	When I start Project Manager, firewall complains that it tries to connect to the internet, and then it tries to start web server on port 9000. What's wrong? Can it be used on computers not connected to the internet?
3.2	You say that Project Manager runs as a site on webserver working on a user's computer - will anybody from other computer be able to also access Project Manager? Will any virus or hacker be able to try to break into computer this web server?
Using Project Manager -various topics
4.1	How can I apply some exceptions to only one file from the project?
4.2	How can I delete the project?
4.3	How can I have several files in the project to be protected using different settings?
4.4	Why behind some options for Project⇒Options there are 2 checkboxes?
4.5	How can I add a header or footer with copyright notice to each output file ?
4.6	How do I export the project so that I can make a backup of it?
4.7	How can I apply settings from some project to new other projects?

No, it's impossible to recover it - the names of symbols and comments are gone forever. So keep the original version of your code in a safe place! Yes, protected version of the same symbol will be the same in every file of your project. If using "shortest" obfuscator (that minimizes total length of identifiers), you will have to reobfuscate entire project and resend all files. In all other cases (e.g. with default obfuscation engine - called "md5") you will have to obfuscate only changed file and to resend only it. You have to list all functions, variables, names of types from the code you plan to obfuscate that are referenced by calling code as "exceptions". If using Project Manager, put them to Symbols ⇒ User-specified exceptions, if using commandline - put them to file (one per line) and add "-x name-of-file.txt" to your commandline. No, you will have to list all symbols individually. But you can automate the task of composing such list by the following trick (if using Project Manager): perform obfuscation of your code, go to Symbols ⇒ View resultant symbol mapping, scroll to bottom and click a link "download a list of encountered symbols", save it to some file (getting list of all symbols encountered in your project listed alphabetically), and use your favourite text editor to cut all symbols from that library (since symbols in the file will be sorted alphabetically, all symbols that start from the same string will occur as a single block); copy and paste all "interesting" symbols into Project ⇒ User-specified exceptions. If using Project Manager, do the following: perform obfuscation of your code, go to Symbols ⇒ View resultant symbol mapping, scroll to bottom and click a link "download a list of encountered symbols", save it to some file (getting list of all symbols encountered in your project listed alphabetically). Paste that list nto Symbols ⇒ "User-specified exceptions". Then go to Symbols ⇒ "User-specified antiexceptions" and list all symbols that need to be obfuscated. It's impossible to answer this question since the ratio greatly depends on the average length of identifiers, average length of comments and average identation size. Unfortunately we are not aware of such reviews. Frankly speaking, most of reviews on the net are paid reviews, so even they existed, we wouldn't recommend to trust them. And keep in mind that most reviews a dedicated to a single product, not a comparison of several ones..

We have created some list that can be thought of a comparison "we with others" - just go to product page and scroll to the list of features - all features marked with "unique" are really unique to our product (and are absent in any other).

We recommend you to test our product yourself and make a decision. We have a trial that lets you fully evaluate it and even apply to your project. Such evaluation will reveal all flexibility and power of our product; the only limitation during evaluation is that all symbols can only prefixed with a same prefix. However, this allows to fully evaluate syntax support, support for exceptions, support for javascript embedded into html. Also, projects created during evaluation can be opened by a non-trial version of our product, so you won't waste the time spent during evaluation at all - your product will already be prepared for protection, and applying production-level protection will be a single click on "Build, Rebuild all" in non-trial edition of our product.

You can get non-expiring version of Stunnix CXX-Obfus by making a request for it. A email with a download link will be sent automatically to you. You have to read Guide on preparing project for obfuscation and Guide on using Project Manager. Yes, Stunnix CXX-Obfus is very flexible and advanced product and it can be used for project of any kind and size. Yes, we will consider adding custom features for additional fee - just contain our sales manager. No, this doesn't help at all. One pass is enough. You have to install Perl interpreter for Windows. Please download the most recent version of it freely from ActiveState's site. Then you'll be able to execute commandlines shown in manual. But we greatly recommend using Project Manager GUI. These two interfaces are equal featurewise. So we greatly recommend to use GUI interface (i.e. Project Manager) - it will save the time needed to read manuals, compose commandline etc. Also it allows to protect all files in project in one pass (instead of the need to invoke Stunnix CXX-Obfus from commandline for each file.

Also GUI allows to create buildscripts - Perl scripts that can perform building/clearing output/rebuilding changed files in your project. So once your project options are "stabialized" you will be able to rebuild your entire project (or only changed files) from commandline too.

Stunnix CXX-Obfus is written in Perl programming language. It is Perl code, but it's protected from analysis and illegal reuse using our perl obfuscation tool - Stunnix Perl-Obfus. We greatly recommend all professional Perl programmers to use it for their projects in order to protect their intellectual property. Project Manager is in fact a web interface for GUI; when you invoke it it starts Web Server. This allows Project Managerr GUI to work as is on Windows, Unix, MacOS X without any modification. We promote using locally-running webserver as a new effective approach to writing cross-platform GUI, please see more information about Stunnix Perl Web Server on our site.

You probably got an impression that it requires internet connection because your firewall warns that program tries to connect to internet; the firewall you use is incorrect and badly written, address 127.0.0.1 is local; every computer has it as address of itself, independant of the fact whether it's connected to the internet or not. This special address is for special "loopback" network interface card accessible only from the same computer; programs from other computers will even be unable to know that Project Manager and Stunnix Perl Web Server are running and will be unable to communicate with it in any way, so it's safe to run Stunnix Perl Web Server (and Project Manager ) even on computer directly connected to the Internet. But of course Internet connection is not required in order to use Project Manager.

No, Stunnix Perl Web Server by default is configured not to listen on any network interfaces except a special "loopback" interface accessible only from the same computer; programs from other computers will even be unable to know that SPWS is running and will be unable to communicate with it in any way, so it's safe to run Project Manager (and SPWS) even on computer directly connected to the Internet. First, you have to put exceptions to a file in your project input directory, one symbol per line.

Then you have to create a new mode using Project → Options (using 'BASE' as parent mode for the newly created mode, enter the name of a file with exceptions (there is no need to specify directory name!) into entry (at the bottom of that page) with title "space-separated names of files to get list of exceptions from" and check a checkbox to the left of it (this will mean that the value of this option overrides the value in parent mode), click Save and then go to Project ⇒ Files, put a checkboxes near files you wish these exceptions to be applied to, then select a name of the newly-created mode in the popuplist at the bottom and click Assign processing mode button. Then of course you will have to rebuild the project.

Please do Project, Options and click "Delete project" button. Please see answer for a related question. The left checkbox behind some form element in the Project⇒Options specifies whether the value of the option overrides the same value of it from the parent mode (if checked - it overrides, if unchecked - the value of this option from the parent mode is used).
So if the option itself has boolean value, then you see two checkboxes in one line. Create a file, e.g. named banner.txt with copyright notice inside a comment and save it into project's input directory.

Go to Settings, Edit modes present in the project.., click on "standard: treat as raw code " item in the list, scroll to bottom, in "File-related options " section, find entry "name of file with text to be prepended to the output" put

    banner.txt

into it and put a checkbox to the left of it (IT'S VERY IMPORTANT - this tells that we override the same setting in the parent mode) and click Save. To export project, open it, then do Project⇒Export as native. What you export this way is a list of files and the options for modes. To import it - just do Project⇒Import.

Project file is stored inside your user's directory - the name of file it's stored in can be seen by going to Project⇒Options (there is a small-printed file location there). You can just copy that file from/to somewhere (and it's OK to rename it, keeping extension).

Also you will have to backup "project state directory" (specified in project⇒options) - it contains exceptions, antiexceptions and symbol mapping information.

Your project (and exported form of it) contains path to the project input, project output and project state directory. If you'll want to relocate these directories to different locations (e.g. after importing project), just go Project⇒Options and edit paths there. Due to this fact it's adviceable to give directories as relative paths relative to project's input directory - this way you'll have less strings to edit when relocating your project.

1. Go to Settings, "Options - locations of dirs, title ..", modify title to something like "new template", click OK.
2. Do Project, "Export for backup (in native format)", save the file you've downloaded to some location.
3. Go to Settings, "Options - locations of dirs, title ..", revert title to original name, click OK (otherwise during next step you'll get 2 projects with same name in Project, Open).
4. Then do Project, "Import from backup", select the file you've saved backup to on a previous step.
5. Go to Project, Open - you'll see project named "new template" in the list, click on it.
6. Go to Settings, "Options - locations of dirs, title ..", put real title and location of input/out/state directories there.
7. Go to Settings, "For files - assign modes to project's files". Click "Select All", click "Stop Managing". This removes all files from the list (you need to do this to get rid of filenames that were present in previous project).
8. Go to Settings, "For files - assign modes to project's files". Click "Select All", click "Add to Project". This will add files in the Input directory to the project; processing mode will be assigned correctly to them.