V.i. Labs Announces New Software Protection Solution for Microsoft .NET Applications
Application providers and Enterprise users now have industry first approach to better protecting .NET applications from threats of piracy, tampering, and code theft
Waltham, MA — March 20, 2007 — V.i. Laboratories, Inc. (“V.i. Labs”), a provider
of software protection solutions for securing high-value and mission-critical applications,
today announced the availability of CodeArmor™ for .NET Framework, a new version
of its flagship offering that protects Microsoft .NET Framework applications from
the threats of reverse engineering. Available immediately, CodeArmor for .NET Framework
is one of the first software protection approaches to combine encryption and active
run-time security monitoring to help protect intellectual property resident within
.NET Framework applications from the increasing threats of piracy, tampering and
code theft.
Application providers and enterprise users are migrating and developing new applications
using the Microsoft .NET Framework because the platform allows developers to use
multiple languages, integrate Web services, and simplify development across multiple
platforms. In a recent IDC study, approximately 36 percent of surveyed organizations
stated their mission-critical applications are developed in the Microsoft .NET Framework.
However, without proper coding and security practices, once .NET Framework applications
are deployed, hackers, competitors, and piracy cracking teams can gain access to
the source code and the embedded IP within the application. Unlike natively compiled
Windows applications which are compiled into low-level machine code, applications
utilizing the .NET Framework are only partially compiled and contain highly detailed
metadata, making it possible to reverse engineer and/or be decompiled into higher
level source code. This increases the risks of malicious tampering and competitive
IP theft and software piracy, especially for software vendors marketing applications
into emerging markets.
“We’re pleased to see an industry partner supporting the .NET Framework and advancing
the framework’s security,” said Thom Robbins, director of .NET Platform Product
Management at Microsoft Corp. “With CodeArmor, the .NET Framework provides developers
with increased protection while they are developing applications.”
“Organizations who develop software applications consider their source code proprietary
and a confidential asset,” said Vic DeMarines, vice president of Products for V.i.
Labs. “With the Microsoft .NET Framework, the product high-level code can be accessible
by using publicly-available tools to decompile deployed applications. Because CodeArmor
provides comprehensive protection for and fully supports the features of the Microsoft
.NET Framework, application developers can now focus on developing applications
completely in managed .NET code.”
Current security measures offer passive protection approaches such as obfuscation,
simple encryption wrappers, or hybrid .NET Framework configurations where sensitive
algorithms remain in unmanaged code. These approaches impact the software development
lifecycle, increase the complexity of deploying and supporting .NET Framework applications,
or provide little defense against a skilled reverse engineering attack.
CodeArmor is the first off-the-shelf solution to combine active and comprehensive
run-time security with a simple protection process that applies security to the
post-compiled applications requiring no source code or design changes. Once protected,
CodeArmor’s active run-time security is embedded within the software application
and activates itself once the application is launched. CodeArmor for .NET Framework
authenticates and verifies the integrity of the environment prior decrypting .NET
Framework assemblies and sensitive functions. This protection process is transparent
from the end user and persistent wherever the protected application is deployed.
In addition, unlike other .NET Framework security approaches, CodeArmor can protect
mix-mode applications which contain managed and unmanaged code.
Other key capabilities contained in CodeArmor for .NET Framework include:
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Ensures safe execution by continually verifying and authenticating the Microsoft
.NET Framework prior to allowing the protected application to run
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Compatibility with Microsoft .NET 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 Frameworks and compatibility
with key .NET capabilities (i.e., Reflection, Global Assembly Cache, Serialization,
strong name support)
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Support for Windows Vista 32-bit
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Support for stand alone DLL protection and Active X controls
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New CodeArmor administrator capability to filter and search for sensitive functions
based on key terms
“This release will allow us to extend deployment of CodeArmor to our other products
that are being developed using Microsoft .NET Framework,” said a director of engineering
for an embedded system application provider which wishes to remain anonymous for
security reasons. “We originally deployed CodeArmor to protect our traditional Windows
applications from the threat of reverse engineering from competitors, this risk
only increases with our use of Microsoft .NET Framework.”
Availability and Pricing
CodeArmor for .NET Framework is available immediately. Pricing starts at $18,500
for enterprise applications and subscription based pricing for Application providers
and Independent Software Vendors.
About V.i. Laboratories
V.i. Labs provides software protection solutions that protect against the misappropriation
and theft of intellectual property resident in software applications. Through V.i.
Labs’ patent-pending technology, software vendors, embedded system providers, enterprise
organizations and government agencies are able to easily secure their software against
the threat of piracy, tampering and theft, independent of where the applications
are distributed. V.i. Labs is privately held and is headquartered in Waltham, MA.
©2007 V.i. Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. V.i. Labs, CodeArmor and the
V.i. Labs logo, are trademarks of V.i. Laboratories, Inc. All other product and
brand names herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts:
Victor DeMarines
V.i. Laboratories, Inc.
781.398.3400
vdemarines@vilabs.com
Gene Carozza/Jason O'Keefe
PAN Communications
978.474.1900
vilaboratories@pancomm.com