Protect FAT Mach-O Files¶

Code Virtualizer cannot protect FAT Mach-O files directly. To protect a FAT Mach-O file, use the macOS lipo tool to extract each architecture, protect each extracted file separately, and then replace the original architectures with the protected ones.

Extract Architectures from a FAT File¶

Use lipo to extract each architecture from the FAT file.

The following example extracts the i386 and x86_64 architectures:

lipo "my_fat_file" -thin i386 -output "my_file_x86"

lipo "my_fat_file" -thin x86_64 -output "my_file_x64"

To display the architectures contained in a FAT file, run:

lipo "my_fat_file" -archs

Protect Architectures¶

Protect each extracted architecture as a normal application:

Virtualizer.exe /protect my_project.tmd /inputfile "my_file_x86" /outputfile "my_file_x86"

Virtualizer.exe /protect my_project.tmd /inputfile "my_file_x64" /outputfile "my_file_x64"

Replace Architectures in the FAT File¶

After protecting the individual architectures, use lipo to replace the original architectures with the protected files:

lipo "my_fat_file" \
    -replace i386 "my_file_x86" \
    -replace x86_64 "my_file_x64" \
    -output "my_fat_file_protected"

The resulting my_fat_file_protected file contains the protected architectures.

Once the FAT file has been rebuilt successfully, the individual architecture files are no longer required.