Is the source code visible through the binary file ? (C#)

I have written a program in c# with Vistual studio 20开发者_开发问答08.

I've compiled and build it and got a .EXE file. My question is this - if I give someone else this .EXE file can he in any way see the source code? functions, variables, calls, stack states, anything? I wish to keep those as discreet as possible.

They can use a tool like Reflector to decompile the executable, this will not be identical to your code, but they will be able to see most of what you wrote. It is a free tool, so you can download it to see what it can do with your exe.

You will need to obfuscate your code if you want to keep others from seeing it easily (though even that can be overcome with enough time and determination). A tool you can use for this is dotfuscator.

According to this SO post, one can reverse engineer a given executable and obtain the code that was used to build it. This msdn blog shows some ways you can make the process of reverse engineering a bit tougher, mainly through the use of obfuscation.

The exact same source code as you have written it no. But he could use tools like Reflector to disassemble it. In order to make the disassembled code difficult to read you could obfuscate it.

Yes.

You can use reflector to decompile any .net assembly. http://www.red-gate.com/products/dotnet-development/reflector/

There are tools that will obfuscate your code. But it will still be visible. Security by obscurity does not work anyway.

As all have said - it's easy to decompile an assembly. Obfuscation offers very little real protection unless you're using some of the really high end commercial tools. The key things to really watch out for is if you have things like encryption keys or security tokens/credentials in your source code these are pretty easy to find.

There are a range of products available that will allow you to compile a .net app to native code which offers much greater protection.