Add Friend Classes to Exclusion List of Obfuscation - vb.net

Question

I'm using Dotfuscator CE with Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 to obfuscate my .Net assemblies.
We know that Public types and members are not be obfuscated by default.
I'm curious to know how can we add Friend Classes in Exclusion list so that those should not be obfuscated?
Here is the config file file I'm using to obfuscate my DLL.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE dotfuscator SYSTEM "http://www.preemptive.com/dotfuscator/dtd/dotfuscator_v2.3.dtd">
<dotfuscator version="2.3">
<propertylist>
<property name="SourceDirectory" value="This Path Will Be Replaced By Visual Studio" />
<property name="SourceFile" value="This Filename Will Be Replaced By Visual Studio" />
</propertylist>
<global>
<option>quiet</option>
</global>
<input>
<asmlist>
<inputassembly refid="e4ca1ab5-26cb-4ab7-9621-87063f75a38f">
<option>honoroas</option>
<option>stripoa</option>
<option>library</option>
<option>transformxaml</option>
<file dir="${SourceDirectory}" name="${SourceFile}" />
</inputassembly>
</asmlist>
</input>
<output>
<file dir="${SourceDirectory}" />
</output>
<renaming>
<option>xmlserialization</option>
<mapping>
<mapoutput overwrite="true">
<file dir="${SourceDirectory}\Dotfuscated" name="Map.xml" />
</mapoutput>
</mapping>
<referencerulelist>
<referencerule rulekey="{6655B10A-FD58-462d-8D4F-5B1316DFF0FF}" />
<referencerule rulekey="{7D9C8B02-2383-420f-8740-A9760394C2C1}" />
<referencerule rulekey="{229FD6F8-5BCC-427b-8F72-A7A413ECDF1A}" />
<referencerule rulekey="{2B7E7C8C-A39A-4db8-9DFC-6AFD38509061}" />
<referencerule rulekey="{494EA3BA-B947-44B5-BEE8-A11CC85AAF9B}" />
<referencerule rulekey="{89769974-93E9-4e71-8D92-BE70E855ACFC}" />
<referencerule rulekey="{4D81E604-A545-4631-8B6D-C3735F793F80}" />
</referencerulelist>
</renaming>
<sos mergeruntime="true">
<option>version:v4</option>
<option>sendanalytics</option>
<option>dontsendtamper</option>
</sos>
<smartobfuscation>
<smartobfuscationreport verbosity="all" overwrite="false" />
</smartobfuscation>
</dotfuscator>
Actually I've a Model class with Friend access specifier. I post its object via PostAsJsonAsync method e.g.
Dim result As HttpResponseMessage = client.PostAsJsonAsync(APIEndPoints.LOGIN, _LoginModel).Result
Here is the Friend Class:
Friend Class LoginModel
Public AccessKey As String
Public Password As String
End Class
API method that receives the request and model:
[HttpPost]
[Route("authenticate")]
public async Task<JsonResult> Authenticate([FromBody] LoginViewModel lvm)
// Here lvm.Accesskey is null
When API receives the request and LoginModel too, its fields are null. If I make my LoginModel public then it works.
Note: this only happens when I obfuscate my DLL, otherwise the implementation works with Friend class too.
Also note: Friend classes are common in VB.Net. They works like public classes when accessed within an assembly but they are private outside the assembly.

Answer 1

Based on your clarification, it sounds like you want to exclude not only the names of Friend types, but also the names of Public fields within those types. I had interpreted your original question as wanting to exclude anything marked Friend, no matter the context.
An important point here is that, in terms of Dotfuscator's rules, excluding a type does not automatically exclude its members.
Here's an exclusion rule set that excludes top-level Friend types and Public and Friend fields of those types:
<excludelist>
<type name=".*" regex="true" speclist="+notpublic">
<comment>Exclude top-level types that are only accessible to the assembly ("Friend" in VB, "internal" in C#, or "private" in IL).</comment>
<field name=".*" speclist="+public" regex="true">
<comment>Exclude public fields of types the parent rule matches</comment>
</field>
</type>
</excludelist>
You can also just exclude types and members you know will cause trouble when renamed, rather than excluding a large number of names using rules based on accessibility. Here's an example, assuming LoginModel is defined in assembly YourAssembly and namespace YourNamespace.Here:
<excludelist>
<type name="YourAssembly.YourNamespace.Here.LoginModel">
<field name="AccessKey" signature="string" />
<field name="Password" signature="string" />
</type>
</excludelist>
(I noticed you're using this same configuration for multiple input assemblies, but this rule is still safe because if the input assembly doesn't contain the specified type, then the rule will be ignored.)
For reference, the Professional Edition documentation on Exclusion Rules (and sub-topics of that page) might be useful - Community Edition and Professional Edition share the same configuration file format, for features that are supported by both editions.
Disclosure: I work on the Dotfuscator team for PreEmptive Solutions.

Answer 2

If you are trying to exclude your input assembly's Friend types and members because your assembly has a Friend Assembly, then be aware that Dotfuscator will automatically exclude such code elements from renaming (the only kind of obfuscation provided by Dotfuscator CE) and will issue the following warning:
WARNING: NameOfYourInputAsssembly has non-input Friend Assemblies and is in Library Mode; internal members will not be renamed or pruned. Consider adding Friend Assemblies as input for increased obfuscation.
(The term "internal" here is the C# equivalent of VB's "Friend" keyword).
As the warning suggests, you can instead include the Friend Assembly as another Input to Dotfuscator.
If you do so, Dotfuscator can then rename the Friend types and members, and update the Friend Assembly to refer to those types and members by the new names.
If you still would like to exclude Friend types and members, you can do so with the following renaming exclusion rule set, added as a child of the <renaming> tag in the config file:
<excludelist>
<type name=".*" regex="true" speclist="+notpublic">
<comment>Exclude types that are only accessible to the assembly ("Friend" in VB, "internal" in C#, or "private" in IL).</comment>
</type>
<type name=".*" regex="true" speclist="+nestedassembly">
<comment>Exclude nested types that are only accessible to the assembly ("Friend" in VB, "internal" in C#, or "private" in IL).</comment>
</type>
<type name=".*" regex="true" excludetype="false">
<comment>Select, but do not exclude, all types.</comment>
<method name=".*" speclist="+assembly" regex="true">
<comment>Exclude methods that are only accessible to the assembly ("Friend" in VB, "internal" in C#, or "assembly" in IL).</comment>
</method>
<field name=".*" speclist="+assembly" regex="true">
<comment>Exclude fields that are only accessible to the assembly ("Friend" in VB, "internal" in C#, or "assembly" in IL).</comment>
</field>
<propertymember name=".*" speclist="+assembly" regex="true">
<comment>Exclude properties that are only accessible to the assembly ("Friend" in VB, "internal" in C#, or "assembly" in IL).</comment>
</propertymember>
<eventmember name=".*" speclist="+assembly" regex="true">
<comment>Exclude events that are only accessible to the assembly ("Friend" in VB, "internal" in C#, or "assembly" in IL).</comment>
</eventmember>
</type>
</excludelist>
Edit: I had missed nested types in the previous revision of this answer.
Disclosure: I work on the Dotfuscator team for PreEmptive Solutions.