From what I've been able to determine, Refox looks for some sort of "signature" in an EXE to locate the FoxPro "code", and then "decompiles" it. A FoxPro EXE is more of a "loader" wrapped around FoxPro pseudo-code than it is an actually EXE. Interestingly enough, ReFox can't decompile an EXE if the FoxPro "runtime" is not available ... so, Refox isn't so much a decompiler as it is a parasite that rides on the back of FoxPro; it probably needs to have FoxPro "decrypt itself" before it can do anything (when using FoxPro encryption).

I've tried a few Freeware "packers" and "encryptors" but they didn't stop Refox ... which leads me to believe that Refox probably lets the "unpack" and "decrypt" run to some point and is then able to locate the FoxPro code.

I don't know how these other packers and encryptors do it, but by compiling a FoxPro EXE into another program (eg. C) as a "resource" and subsequently executing this resource, Refox was unable to figure out that this was anything other than a "non-FoxPro" EXE.

A C/C++ "resource" is a bitmap, icon, menu, dialog, etc. that can be linked into a C/C++ (or Delphi, etc.) EXE. You can also create "custom" resources, which in this case happens to be "some binary" (ie. the FoxPro code).. which is also custom packed and/or encrypted. At run time, you can do various things with these custom resources ... like "run them" (via the C/C++ EXE).

Not particularly perfect, but enough to fool Refox (scummy b*******).

If you patch the FoxPro Icons and runtime file names with something else, there is even less evidence that this is a FoxPro application.

The main difference between the "resource" technique and the more common ones, is that in the former the FoxPro EXE is actually "compiled and linked" into another EXE vs simply being "wrapped" by another (which often doesn't seems to be a problem for Refox).


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>Thanks for generating some interest in this area. Perhaps the community can come up with something workable since MS doesn't give a rat's *** about what some of us consider a problem.
>
>If you need any help in this area, let me know. For my part, I've had some success by imbedding Fox EXE's as resources within non-Fox EXE's.
>
>Gerry
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>That's an interesting idea. Can you expand on this? How do you do it?
>
>Guy