Internal Resource Protection

SoftwareShield System Feature Guide > IronWrapping > IronWrap Protection > Internal Resource Protection

## Internal Resource Protection

Internal Resource Protection is a protection mechanism which modifies the binaries internal structure to virtualize access to the resource sections inside it.

All Win32 executables contain a "resource section" where resources such as dialogs, toolbars, images, strings and many more types of static data is stored. This data is necessary for the correct operation of your programs. Some of the data is used by Windows explorer even before your program is executed (the icon for example to display it in an explorer window). The IronWrapped product which uses Internal Resource Protection totally modifies all the data in the resource section storing it in its own format in an obfuscated manner and virtualizes all access to it.

The Internal Resource Protection mechanism virtualizes access to these resources from your IronWrapped programs to ensure that the decrypted/de-obfuscated data is only accessible when the IronWrapper is in place. If somehow the wrapper were removed, the resources would not be found and the program would not function correctly.

### More Information

For more information on actually setting your license project to use Internal Resource Protection, see: IronWrap Protection Tab