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Debug a protected assembly with Visual Studio

Debugging obfuscated Microsoft .NET assemblies

• Use the Open Project command within Visual Studio to select the obfuscated exe file (in the case of a dll, select the hosting exe file).
• Visual Studio now creates a debugging solution for you, in which you can use the Properties page of the project to more thoroughly control the debugging.
• Disable "Just my Code". Go to Debug|Options and Settings, and make sure that "Enable Just my Code (Managed only)" is deselected.
• To debug the obfuscated assembly, simply hit F5.

Breaking on first-chance exceptions

When debugging exceptions in obfuscated assemblies, often you would like to break on first-chance exceptions. To do that, you should follow these steps:

• When debugging your obfuscated assembly, watch the Output->Debug window.
• Among other things, this window display exceptions when they occur, with the text "First chance exception of type ...".
• Find out which type of exception is causing the error, and make Visual Studio break on first chance exceptions of this type by going to the Debug menu->Exceptions and selecting this exception type.
• Debug the project again, by this time VS should break directly on the exception.

Note: Make sure that you have the correct debuggers selected in your VS project options (on the Debug page).

 

See also

• Isolating Obfuscation Errors
• De-obfuscate Stack Traces

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