Is .NET code obfuscation really worth it?

Question

From what I\'ve read, code obfuscation isn\'t really that hard to \"crack\", and it will only delay the inevitable. In that case, what is it\'s purpose?

If someone re

Answer 1

For .Net apps, NOT obfuscating amounts to making your product open source, since its so easy to see and analyze the source code using Reflector. You may have a license agreement, but only a few companies have the time and money to defend the license agreement in court. For such companies, obfuscation is the best option. Sure, you need to test the obfuscated assemblies, but then, you are already testing your product, so why not test the final obfuscated assemblies.

It also depends on how helpful the obfuscator is. Consider our Crypto Obfuscator - it supports easy integration with Visual Studio so you are always running obfuscated assemblies. It also has many automatic exclusions so it will not obfuscate classes/members which will cause obfuscated assembly to run incorrectly. It will also display warnings (including line number) for code which may cause the obfuscated assembly to run incorrectly. This is a huge time saver.