Guide: 2 ways to use Skater .NET obfuscator’s Command-line Interface in 2022
Skater NET Obfuscator
Skater .NET Obfuscator was originally developed as a need for Rustemsoft struggling to efficiently protect .NET apps.
Obfuscator console usage
Obviously command line automation is the bonus programming interface. The console interface could be useful in two different ways.
1. with pre-stored obfuscation settings (a preferable way):
Skater [SettingsName]
'SettingsName' is a name of pre-stored Settings.
The command-line version running in batch mode is much useful for your scheduled products updates. You have to assign settings for an assembly in Graphical User Interface (GUI) version first. Then the batch obfuscate task will use the settings.
Also you can use assembly obfuscation settings stored in a separate xml file per assembly.
The Skater has two ways to store configuration information for assemblies.
You can call obfuscation settings by the settings name as shown above. Also the obfuscation preferences could be stored per project in the .NET project folder in a separate xml configuration file.
-XMLFILE=[Path+FileName] Pre-stored Settings XML File Name with full path
Example:
Skater -x=C:/MyDir/MyAssemblySettings.xml
In GUI you can call the xml pre-stored settings to apply in Skater interface by Ctrl+F3 ('Apply XML file Settings') key combination. The settings XML configuration file could be connected with your .NET project, is easily to backup, can be checked out with the project, can be shared between several users or taken to another development machine as a part of obtaining the .NET project source code from the source code repository.
Learn how to assign and save Assembly Settings by using GUI version.
2. The command-line interface
When you run Skater.exe in console MS-DOS mode it accepts the following command-line parameters:
-XMLFILE=[Path+FileName] Pre-stored Settings XML File Name with full path
-SOURCE=[Path+FileName] Source Assembly Name with full path
-OUTPUT=[Path] Target Assembly output directory path
-KEY=[Path+FileName] Key file name with full path for strong-named assemblies
-METHOD=[Number] Naming convention method. 'Number' is:
0 - '?' chars (default when registered)
1 - Unreadable chars
2 - Alpha-Numeric chars
3 - Abracadabrical names (64 chars)
-NOPRIVATE Do not Obfuscate private members (it obfuscates all private members by default)
-PUBLIC Obfuscate all public members (it does not obfuscate public members by default)
-CONCEALSTRINGS Conceal all System.String values (it does not encrypt String values by default)
-FLOW Implement Control Flow for All methods
-WRITELOG Write Error Log file with info if Skater fails (Skater.err log file will be created in -OUTPUT directory)
-HIDE Hide the console window when process runs
-? Display the usage message
Option key is '-', options are recognized by a first character
Examples:
Skater MyAssemblySettings
Obfuscate by using Settings created in GUI
Skater -s=C:/MyDir/MyAssembly.dll -o=C:/Dir_New/ -k=C:/MyKey.key -p
The MyAssembly.dll that located in C:/MyDir/ will be stored into C:/Dir_New/ directory after obfuscation. Since the assembly is strong-named it will be signed with C:/MyKey.key.
The process will implement all private and all public members obfuscation.
Please note, when use Skater command-line interface the console command has to conform with MS-DOS commands rules. When you specify a parameter it should NOT have spaces.
If it does include spaces the passing argument must be surrounded with double quotes:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\FolderName\Skater.exe"
NOTE: You can run Skater as a single process at your PC. Please do not run the command-line interface while the Skater GUI is open. It will not start.