Obtaining the Magic File

Magic files play a crucial role in application security. When placed alongside a protected application, they enable the execution of functions and bypass protections, while also facilitating the deobfuscation of application exceptions without requiring any key.

These security files are named shield.bytehide.magic.

They are uniquely generated each time an application is protected, and they function exclusively with the specific application they were generated for.

To obtain the magic file, you have two options:

1. CopyMagicKey Option: Add the CopyMagicKey option with the value true in the Shield configuration file. This will cause the bytehide.shield.magic file to appear in the same directory where the protected application is saved. Note: This approach is not recommended for CI/CD or builds that automatically publish the code, such as Xamarin, Maui, packages (nupkg), or installers.

2. Control Panel Method: Navigate to the control panel, access your specific project/application, and retrieve the file from the history by clicking on the "actions" in the history.