Could not load file or assembly 'CommandLine

[yurigbur]

Hi,

it seems the 2.0 Version does not compile anymore into a single executable but compiles into and requires some DLLs. E.g. CommandLine.dll (at least with my VS 2022 setup). Is this intended behavior? If yes, is it possible to compile it into a single executable with the target .NET version? Using Certify through a C2 agent this way would be way easier. Publishing the project does not seem to make a difference.

PS > .\Certify.exe

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'CommandLine, Version=2.9.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=5a870481e358d379' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
   at Certify.Program.Main(String[] args)

[bytewreck]

Can you explain what you mean by "publishing the project"? The project includes ILMerge, which compile the entire source into a single standalone executable :)

[beune]

I have the same, the Release folder contains a number of extra DLLs. If I move the Release version of Certify.exe outside of this folder and run it, I get the same error.

[bytewreck]

What version of VS are you using to compile it @beune ?

[beune]

What version of VS are you using to compile it @beune ?

My current version is 17.14.13, but I cannot seem to reproduce the issue anymore. Seems to be a weird quirk.

[bytewreck]

What version of VS are you using to compile it @beune ?

My current version is 17.14.13, but I cannot seem to reproduce the issue anymore. Seems to be a weird quirk.

Interesting. The only reason I could see for this happening, is that the ILMerge NuGet packaget doesn't get properly installed in the repository, but without more details I won't be able to replicate it 😅

[yurigbur]

@bytewreck, I am not too familiar with the merge utilities, but the packages currently specifies dnMerge not ILMerge not sure if this is a relevant difference.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<packages>
  <package id="BouncyCastle" version="1.8.9" targetFramework="net45" />
  <package id="CommandLineParser" version="2.9.1" targetFramework="net472" />
  <package id="dnMerge" version="0.5.15" targetFramework="net472" developmentDependency="true" />
</packages>

I am currently using VS 17.14.29 and still experience the same missing "single executable" packing behavior. What VS version are you using with which commit of the repo?

[yurigbur]

Hm okay, I think there might be something weird with the configuration. If I compile as release and then publish, the exe in the app.publish folder does not work but the exe in the release folder. If I do not perform a publish but only compile for release, the exe did not work.

[bytewreck]

I'm not sure what you're referring to as "publishing", the binary is supposed to be built in Release mode, and then ran from the EXE in the Release output directory :)

[ravez1]

Thank you, it was ILMerge for me. I had the same issue. I just installed MSBuild.ILMerge.Task from NuGet Packages into the project and it makes one working executable.