Dinkey Pro/FD version 7.6 released

The Dinkey Pro/FD Team | | 3 minute read
ARM Protezione da copia Dinkey Pro/FD Linux macOS Shell Protezione software

The latest Dinkey Pro/FD release introduces support for Apple silicon.

For a full list of changes to Dinkey Pro/FD, please see the Dinkey Pro/FD version history.

Protect macOS Apps on Apple Silicon

Last year, Apple announced that it is transitioning its Macs away from Intel-based processors to Apple silicon chips, which use the ARM64 architecture. Apple silicon models of the iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac mini are now available, all using the Apple M1 processor. We've made major changes to the macOS SDK for Dinkey Pro/FD to help our macOS developer customers transition their protected software. All of the apps included in the macOS SDK are now Universal 2 binaries, meaning the same program file works on both the brand new Apple silicon and the older Intel-based Macs. Likewise, the API libraries for use in your own app are also Universal 2 binaries, and can be used in apps built for either architecture.

Don't worry if you're not planning to transition your code just yet, and are currently leveraging Rosetta 2 to run your protected app on Apple silicon. All parts of the Dinkey Pro/FD SDK for macOS are 100% compatible with Rosetta 2, with no noticeable effect on performance.

Due to the increased code-signing requirements for code that targets Apple silicon, debug versions of our API libraries are unfortunately not available for this platform. These libraries create a child process of your protected app, which cannot be signed by Microcosm before we ship the SDK to you because it is later modified by DinkeyAdd when you add protection. Due to these code-signing requirements we must also manually build your personal copy of the Dinkey Pro/FD SDK on an Apple silicon Mac, so macOS download links are no longer included by default when you request an SDK update. If you use Dinkey Pro/FD on macOS, be sure to select this option when filling in the form.

Expanded Support For .NET Shell Protection

Building on new functionality introduced in version 7.5, version 7.6 introduces the ability to Shell-protect .NET assemblies for use on x64 Linux (also known as AMD64 or x86_64). This means that .NET Shell protection is now fully compatible with:

  • .NET Framework 2.0 and newer on x86 and x64 Windows.
  • .NET Core 3.0, .NET Core 3.1, .NET 5 and the latest preview of .NET 6 on x86 Windows, x64 Windows and x64 Linux.

.NET is not officially available for Linux on 32-bit x86 systems, and so Shell-protecting .NET assemblies for use on these systems is not supported by Dinkey Pro/FD.