Encrypt options

Start from a preset

The four presets put the switches below into a sensible position in one go; individual tuning still works afterwards. A stage with no protection enabled is skipped automatically at run time.

Preset	Positioning
None	merge and package only
Basic	internal tools, quick verification: renaming (letters) plus constant encryption, almost no startup cost
Standard (recommended)	normal commercial distribution: renaming, constant encryption, control flow, anti-debug — low compatibility risk
Aggressive	high-value licensed software: adds anti-tamper, anti-dump and hardening. Compatibility risk; always regression test

Every option is labelled “default X” in the UI and changes colour once modified; “restore defaults” resets the whole group from the schema. Options that take parameters only appear once their protection is on — a disabled protection should not keep its parameters on screen.

Group 1 · Protection strength

Option	Default	Notes
preset	normal	Written to <rule preset="…">. Explicitly enabled protections override same-named entries in the preset, so this behaves as a fallback strength

Group 2 · Anti-decompile and anti-tamper

The goal is to make static analysis expensive and modifications detectable. None of these costs much startup time.

Option	Default	Notes
antiIldasm	off	Stops ILDASM and friends from opening the assembly. Free
antiDebug	off	Detects debuggers / profilers and blocks attaching. Unfriendly to profiling sessions
debugMode	safe	Anti-debug engine: safe uses managed APIs (best compatibility) / win32 uses WinAPI (Windows only) / antinet is strongest but incompatible with Mono
antiTamper	off	Encrypts method bodies with a whole-module checksum: any changed byte stops the program from loading. Side effect: method bodies are empty in decompilers, and the module becomes unverifiable
tamperMode	normal	When the check runs: normal once at startup / jit before each method is compiled (harder to bypass, worse compatibility)
tamperKey	normal	Key derivation: normal static algorithm / dynamic generated at runtime
antiDump	off	Prevents dumping the decrypted assembly from memory. WinAPI-based, Windows only
invalidMetadata	off	Writes malformed metadata so decompilers fail to parse. No runtime effect, but some scanners false-positive
harden	off	Hardens the runtime of the other protections, raising the cost of unpacking. Only meaningful with other protections enabled

Group 3 · Code obfuscation

The goal is code that cannot be read after decompiling, or compiled back. Renaming is the most effective and the riskiest for reflection-heavy programs.

Option	Default	Notes
rename	off	Replaces class and method names with meaningless ones. Breaks programs that look symbols up by name or serialise across assemblies
renameMode	unicode	unicode hardest to read but breaks reflection / letters best compatibility / sequential emits symbols.map for reverse lookup from crash logs / decodable decodable / reversible encrypts names with a password / retain no renaming
renamePassword	empty	Only used by reversible. After shipping, crash logs can be mapped back to original names
renameArgs	on	Renames method parameters too (they show up in stack traces and reflection)
renEnum	off	Renames enum members. Enum names are often serialised as strings or written into config — check before enabling
renPublic	off	Renames public members. Do not enable for a library called from outside — callers look members up by name
controlFlow	off	Shuffles control flow inside methods. Noticeably larger output and slower execution
cfType	switch	switch rebuilds a state machine (recommended) / jump inserts jumps to produce spaghetti, which yields unverifiable modules
cfPredicate	normal	How the state variable is stored: normal directly / expression encoded in a dynamic expression / x86 native x86 expression (breaks AnyCPU)
cfIntensity	60	0–100. Lower means each basic block is sliced more finely: harder to read, slower to run
cfDepth	4	1–16, only when the predicate is expression / x86. Deeper is harder to reverse and slower to compile
cfJunk	off	Injects never-executed code to distract a reader. Larger output, unverifiable modules
refProxy	off	Turns direct field / method references into indirect calls, hiding who calls whom
refMode	mild	mild adds one indirection layer (cheap) / strong uses dynamic delegates (harder to reverse, slower)
refInternal	off	By default only cross-assembly calls are proxied; enabling this proxies intra-assembly calls too

Group 4 · Data encryption (symmetric)

Constants and embedded resources are stored encoded and decoded at run time — the most direct “symmetric encryption” surface in a .NET assembly. The keys are generated by ConfuserEx and hidden inside the decoder.

Option	Default	Notes
constants	off	Encrypts string and number constants, so decompiled code no longer shows keywords, endpoints or key fragments
constMode	normal	normal static algorithm with random parameters / dynamic generates the algorithm in place / x86 emits native x86 expressions (strongest, breaks AnyCPU)
constElements	SI	Which constants to encrypt: S strings, N numbers, P common values (0/1/-1), I array initialisers, combinable. P must come with S or N
constCfg	off	Binds decoding to the control-flow state variable, making static recovery much harder, at a perceptible runtime cost
resources	off	Encrypts embedded resources (icons, config files, embedded scripts). Decoded on load, so startup is slightly slower. If the compressor is on, keep only one of the two to avoid compressing twice
resMode	normal	normal static algorithm with random parameters / dynamic generates it in place

Group 5 · Signing and reproducibility (asymmetric / hashing)

Option	Default	Notes
snKeyPath	empty	Strong-name key (.snk / .pfx). Signs the assembly with an RSA private key so the runtime can verify it was not replaced. Empty means no signing
snKeyPass	empty	Only needed when the path above is a .pfx container. .snk files usually have no password
seed	empty	ConfuserEx randomises its encryption parameters. A fixed seed makes identical input produce byte-identical output
debugSymbols	off	Keeps the .pdb. Useful for mapping stack traces in production, usually wrong to ship to users
compress	on	Compresses the assembly before loading: smaller, slightly slower to start. With resource encryption enabled it compresses twice — pick one

Generating a strong-name key:

sn -k app.snk

Compatibility notes

• cfPredicate=x86 and constMode=x86 break AnyCPU: they emit native x86 instructions that cannot run in a 64-bit process.
• antiDump and debugMode=win32 depend on WinAPI, so they are Windows-only.
• debugMode=antinet is the strongest and incompatible with Mono.
• antiTamper, cfJunk and cfType=jump all produce unverifiable modules, which some environments refuse to load.

To see where these switches land in the template, go to templates & placeholders.