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RELEASE NOTES

What’s new in Babel.

Changes to the engine, licensing tools and Desktop workspace, from the product release notes.

Released October 9, 2026 · latest release

Version 12.1.0

Babel 12.1.0 is the first stable release of Babel 12. These notes collect the significant improvements and fixes since the 11.8 release, including the work completed during the 12.0 development cycle.

Babel Desktop

The new desktop application replaces Babel UI and brings the obfuscation workspace and Licensing management to Windows, macOS and Linux.

Babel Desktop project canvas with assemblies and merge links
Babel Desktop project canvas with assemblies and merge links
The visual workspace connects assemblies and their protection workflow.
Babel Desktop protection statistics showing renaming coverage
Babel Desktop protection statistics showing renaming coverage
Results show the protections actually applied by the engine.
Babel Desktop control-flow protection settings
Babel Desktop control-flow protection settings
Configure protection options in the integrated property editor.

Enhancements

  • Visual project canvas: connect assemblies, merge inputs, embedded assemblies and references in one graph. Explicit execution-order and map-file links coordinate cross-assembly renaming; automatic layout, pan, zoom and target cards make larger projects easier to inspect.
  • Protection editor and presets: configure renaming, control flow, strings, MSIL encryption, resources, signing and diagnostics with typed controls and file pickers. Edit schema-validated XML rules and apply Light, Balanced or Maximum presets. Commands can set up merging or public-symbol obfuscation across a project.
  • Real engine results: follow phases, warnings and complete logs in Activity; cancel a run, inspect per-assembly protection statistics, drill into namespaces and types, and revisit local run history. Target cards summarize the protections actually applied. Open the output folder or run the protected application directly.
  • Stack trace decoder: load multiple map files, decode and save traces, and hide frames generated by Babel. Licensing exception reports can also use maps stored on the service, including inner exceptions.
  • Extensions and Gallery: install declarative .babelext packages for themes, commands and service-backed views. The Gallery shows previews, documentation, permissions, edition requirements and maintenance eligibility before installation. The MIT-licensed @babelfor/desktop-extension-sdk supports validation and publishing.
  • Integrated Licensing console: manage service connections, customers, products, orders, releases, licenses, templates, sign keys, tokens, reports and webhooks. Dashboards show activity and upcoming expirations; a geographic view summarizes usage. Management requires the appropriate Server or Data Center entitlement and service permissions.
  • MCP automation: an optional local, token-protected MCP server exposes project editing, runs, diagnostics, statistics and Licensing operations. It follows the same roles and entitlements as the interface, with confirmation for protected changes.
  • Appearance and languages: built-in English, Italian, German, French, Spanish and Japanese; light and dark themes, adjustable density and text size, and installable themes with fonts, icons and skins. The command palette shows recent commands and platform-specific shortcuts.

Changes

  • Installers and updates: this release ships Windows x64 EXE/MSI, macOS Apple Silicon DMG/ZIP and Linux x64 AppImage/DEB/RPM with the runtime included. Per-user Windows EXE installations support automatic updates; machine-wide MSI installations offer verified manual downloads. Update feeds are signed and respect platform, license and maintenance eligibility. Windows requires Enterprise or higher; macOS and Linux require Ultimate or higher.
  • Stable and development releases: 12.1.0 is stable. Subsequent 12.1.x fixes are private development builds before the next stable release, 12.2.0. Existing .babel projects remain supported. Independent flows can optionally run in parallel (2–4); floating licenses run one flow at a time.

Bug Fixes

  • Project workflow: corrected Save/Save As, reopening existing Babel UI projects, unsaved-change prompts, execution order, path pickers and output-file selection. Generate Log File now also displays the complete engine log in Activity.
  • Account and updates: the in-app license selector refreshes the current account and eligible licenses after reconnection; an offline account retains its local license. Failed update/channel switches recover correctly, and macOS DMG installation icons remain visible in Finder.

Babel Obfuscator

Enhancements

  • Chained-state control flow: the new opt-in chain transform evolves dispatcher state along the executed path to complicate static reconstruction. Enable --controlflow chain=on or select it in Desktop/MSBuild. Available on Ultimate, Server and Data Center; existing presets do not enable it automatically. Documentation.
  • Stream string encryption: --strings stream adds managed ChaCha20 encryption with SipHash authentication and caller checks. Decoded strings are cached. Available on Ultimate, Server and Data Center, with Desktop and MSBuild configuration.
  • MAUI Android/iOS package integrity: validate trusted Android signing certificates or iOS bundle/team identities with --trustedsigner, --trustedbundle and --trustedteam. Babel warns when required identities are missing. Available on Ultimate, Server and Data Center.
  • Code encryption: password-protected MSIL uses PBKDF2 with a fresh salt per build; cacheable non-generic encrypted methods avoid repeated locks after compilation. Existing encrypted content remains readable.
  • Proxies and diagnostics: dynamic proxies now support generic method calls; decoded proxy frames identify the original method. --stacktrace frames=all|user filters generated frames. Existing 2.5 maps remain readable alongside format 2.6; integer value encryption also covers -1.
  • Build licensing: parallel processes coordinate revocation checks to reduce duplicate requests. Ultimate license files work entirely offline; activation licenses allow up to three days offline after a successful contact, and floating jobs recheck their server lease.

Changes

  • Download a Babel 12 license: 11.x license files cannot unlock the protected 12.x engine, even with active maintenance. Download the current license from your account. Maintenance covers builds released within its window; the authenticated release date/version is verified locally. Exact purchased-version rights remain subject to the license's other restrictions; wildcards do not bypass maintenance.
  • Enterprise eligibility: Enterprise is for local, interactive Windows use. macOS, Linux, build servers, containers and non-interactive sessions require Ultimate or higher. An unsupported Enterprise environment now fails before producing output instead of silently running in demo mode.
  • Command line and packages: Babel Desktop replaces Babel UI and the previous separate Obfuscator/Licensing installers. Cross-platform CLI ZIPs and NuGet tools remain available, including .NET 8, 9 and 10 packages. Suite assemblies and packages share the release version.
  • File patterns and tamper checks: *.dll matches the current directory; use **/*.dll for recursive matching. Single-file/AOT desktop publishing reports when PE-image tampering checks cannot protect the published image.

Bug Fixes

  • WPF/XAML compatibility: corrected renamed dependency-property setters, AddOwner, routed events, enum values, binding/member paths, markup extensions and virtual-method overrides, including affected Telerik controls and theme resources.
  • Avalonia merging: preserve assembly resource indexes and colliding asset paths, and retarget avares:// references so merged resources remain loadable.
  • Encryption and proxies: corrected stream decryptor startup on .NET Framework and reads after JIT inlining, generic proxy-cache collisions, password-provider accessibility and code-encrypted generic getters. Unsupported encrypted signatures are skipped with a diagnostic instead of producing invalid code.
  • Babel Encrypt Plugin: corrected .NET Core/.NET 5+ decrypter compilation, optimized-stack handling with useCodeEncryption, and exceptions in checkDeobfuscators.
  • Reliability: corrected chained-state exception boundaries, wildcard matching and per-target option leakage between runs. Explicit license selection cannot fall back to another cached/activated license; edited licenses or release metadata are rejected.

Babel Licensing

The Babel Desktop Licensing extension dashboard
The Babel Desktop Licensing extension dashboard
Manage the Licensing service from the new Desktop application.

Enhancements

  • Maintenance-aware product licensing: opt a product into release-date-based update eligibility with Babel.Licensing.ReleaseDate assembly metadata. XML and compact string licenses report the dated MaintenanceExpired reason consistently. Products without the metadata retain their existing matching behavior.
  • Structured lic CLI: JSON/NDJSON output for automation, machine-readable option help and version details, --quiet for unattended use, and semantic --strict-exit codes. Existing license output formats and default text behavior remain available.
  • PostgreSQL support: use PostgreSQL alongside SQLite, SQL Server and MySQL/MariaDB. Configure the provider explicitly; changing it does not transfer an existing database. Desktop also supports a separately configured local SQLite service over loopback.
  • Release and report management: signed update feeds, release states and private access lists, development/stable channels, promotion and withdrawal. Exception reports decode stack traces using stored release maps, with an explicit map/release selection when needed.
  • Service controls: configurable check-in rate limiting with Retry-After, common HTTP/gRPC call timeouts and a bounded offline allowance through OfflineGracePeriod.

Changes

  • One Server/Data Center service package: the same service ZIP serves both editions. The license unlocks the Data Center web application; Server retains the service/API and Desktop management. The .NET 10 MySQL/MariaDB provider is updated for Entity Framework Core 10 compatibility.
  • Release eligibility: new product releases require maintenance by default unless explicitly configured otherwise. HTTPS product-license checks using DNS hostnames validate certificates by default.

Bug Fixes

  • Activation continuity: migrate existing .NET Framework activations from earlier stores. Reactivating the same machine returns its existing token without consuming another seat; revoked activations remain refused.
  • Partial updates: omitted fields retain their values, including revoked flags, permissions and stored signing-key data. Renaming a sign key no longer erases its content. Protected service APIs preserve their JSON field names.
  • Concurrency and authentication: encryption/decryption uses independent cipher instances; authentication caches distinguish user keys, configured HTTP timeouts are respected, and database logging recovers after an error.
  • Web and reports: notifications render as plain text, management/MCP relationships and view navigation are corrected, regional usage coordinates parse independently of host culture, and report decoding skips unrelated framework assemblies.