ADVobfuscator demonstrates how to use the C++20 language to generate, at compile time, obfuscated data and code without using any external tool and without modifying the compiler.
The techniques presented rely only on C++20, as standardized by ISO.
It also shows how to introduce some form of randomness to generate polymorphic code, and it gives some concrete examples like the encryption of string literals and the obfuscation of calls using finite state machines.
ADVobfuscator is delivered as a set of header files. You have to include them in your project and call the appropriate functions.
First, you have to follow the requirements below. Then, you just have to include ADVobfuscator header files and use UDL such as _obf or _aes to protect your strings.
Look at the examples in the examples folder.
- A
C++20compatible compiler (i.e. a compiler that is not too old). - Support of the C++20 Standard Library. It is generally the case if your compiler supports C++20. There are however exceptions, especially for embedded environments.
- CMake 3.14 if you want to build the examples with CMake (this is optional).
cd Examples
mkdir -p BUILD
cd BUILD
cmake ..
cmake --build .
Each example is in its subdirectory.
Open ADVobfuscator.sln.
Debug builds are very special: Compiler do not have (and do not most of the time) respect statements such as inline or constexpr. All optimizations are also, by default, disabled. Compilers are doing this for a good reason: let you debug, single step, etc.
As a consequence, ADVobfuscator is not compatible with Debug builds. It works only for Release builds.
ADVobfuscator has been tested with:
| Compiler | Version | OS | CPU | Compatible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Clang | 17.0.0 | macOS 15 | AArch64 | YES |
| Clang | 19.1.7 | Debian 13 | x86_64 | YES |
| Clang | 18.1.8 | Debian 13 | x86_64 | YES |
| Clang | 17.0.6 | Debian 13 | x86_64 | YES |
| GCC | 15.1.0 | macOS 15 | x86_64 | YES |
| GCC | 14.2.0 | macOS 15 | AArch64 | YES |
| GCC | 14.2.0 | Debian 13 | x86_64 | YES |
| GCC | 13.3.0 | macOS 15 | AArch64 | NO |
| Visual Studio | 17.14.13 | Windows 11 | AArch64 | YES |
Other compilers are probably compatible if they are C++20 compliant.
| Files and Folders | Description |
|---|---|
README.md |
This file |
include/advobfuscator |
ADVobfuscator library |
Examples |
Examples of using ADVobfuscator |
| Files | Description |
|---|---|
aes.h |
Obfuscation using AES-128 compile time encryption |
aes_string.h |
Obfuscated strings using AES-128 compile time encryption |
bytes.h |
Obfuscated blocks of bytes |
fsm.h |
Compile time finite state machine to obfuscate function calls |
obj.h |
Obfuscation |
random.h |
Generate random numbers at compile time |
string.h |
Obfuscated strings |
format.h |
std::format Formatting of strings |
Copyright (c) 2025 Sebastien Andrivet All rights reserved.
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