Getting Started with the .NET Tracer

On this page we will show you how to use the Cryptosense .NET Tracer to obtain a cryptography trace from a .NET Core application on Windows.

Prerequisites

Before you use the .NET Tracer, make sure you have followed the installation instructions.

You will also need a .NET application that you know how to start from a command line terminal.

Tracing the application

Create or pick a directory where the traces will be written to (the application must have write access to that directory). In this example, we'll use C:\path\to\output\dir.

For the rest of the guide you'll need to open a PowerShell window to be used to enter commands.

To prepare the environment just for your application, run the following commands:

$env:CORECLR_PROFILER = '{cf0d821e-299b-5307-a3d8-9ccb4916d2e5}'
$env:CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_32 = 'C:\path\to\cs_dotnet_tracer_32.dll'
$env:CORECLR_PROFILER_PATH_64 = 'C:\path\to\cs_dotnet_tracer_64.dll'
$env:CORECLR_ENABLE_PROFILING = 1
$env:CS_OUTPUT_DIR = 'C:\path\to\output\dir'

Then, run your application with a command such as the following:

C:\path\to\application.exe

When your application has finished executing, you will find trace and log files like these in the output directory chosen earlier:

C:\path\to\output\dir
├── trace_2022-05-20-13-53-48-528-355222.cst
└── log_2022-05-20-13-53-48-528-355222.log

The .cst trace file is now ready for uploading to the Cryptosense Analyzer Platform. The .log file, on the other hand, is only there for debugging and shouldn't be uploaded.

See the manual to learn how to trace .NET Framework applications, how to use the tracer on Linux and to get a list of all available parameters.