.netdebuggingsymbolspdb-files

How much information do pdb files contain? (C# / .NET)


Is it wise to redistribute the pdb files along with a commercial application?

Occasionally, I'm using the stack trace to get a more detailed error reporting logs from the deployed applications; can this functionality be achieved without relying to those files?

Also, how much hints of the original source code does these files contain? Would it be easier to reverse-engineer my application using it?


Solution

  • It basically adds information for:

    which all combined makes reverse engineering very easy for native code.

    Luckily you can create a stripped down version of your PDB files which only contains public information with /PDBSTRIPPED parameter.

    Oh you edited to add C#/.NET, so I'm not sure if "PDBSTRIPPED" is applicable. However .NET applications are very easy to reverse engineer even without any symbol information. I wouldn't mind including them in a .NET project.