If a password is hard-coded into a variable in source code such as VB, could someone extract this password by looking at the compiled executable code?
If so, what can be done to avoid this?
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If a password is hard-coded into a variable in source code such as VB, could someone extract this password by looking at the compiled executable code?
If so, what can be done to avoid this?
Yes, someone could.
Nothing can be done to avoid it. Obfuscation will make it slightly harder.
In the worst case, if someone didn’t understand your obfuscated code, they could run your executable in a debugger and read the password from memory just before you use it.
The solution is, of course, not to hard-code important passwords into your binaries.