WinDbg. From A to Z!

Everything you need to know about WinDbg. And nothing you dont.

By Robert Kuster
December 2007. All rights reserved. www.windbg.info

Why WinDbg?
Because WinDbg is: used by the Microsoft Windows product team to develop Windows much more powerful than the well-known Visual Studio debugger extensible through extension DLLs its debug engine is part of the Windows OS
Up from Windows XP dgbeng.dll and dbghelp.dll are installed in C:\Windows\System32.

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Why WinDbg. From A to Z ?

WinDbg's documentation is sub-optimal for people new to the topic Without good documentation and examples the learning curve for WinDbg is very steep
In fact many people give up soon after the installation.

WinDbg. From A to Z! is a quick start and introduction to WinDbg. After reading it you will have a good feeling about what WinDbg is and what it can do for you.
While many parts of WinDbg. From A to Z! are based on user-mode examples, you will benefit from it even if you are doing kernel-mode development. Note that the same debugging engine is running behind the scenes, no matter if you debug user-mode or kernel-mode code. Essentially the only visible difference for kernel-mode debugging is that you will end up using another set of extension commands.

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Table of Contents - Roadmap

Behind the Scenes

Using WinDbg Global Flags Application Verifier Process Dumps

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Debugging Tools for Windows XP

WinDbg.exe ntsd.exe cdb.exe kd.exe dbgsrv.exe userdump.exe drwtsn32.exe livekd.exe OlyDbg.exe ProcessExplorer.exe ...

dbgeng.dll

dbghelp.dll

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Debug Help Library: dbghelp.dll

Documented in MSDN Included in the operating system, starting with Windows 2000 Contains support routines for:
a) Process Dumping (MiniDumpWriteDump , DbgHelpCreateUSerDump, ..) b) Obtaining Stack Traces (StackWalk64, ...) c) Symbol Handling (SymFromAddr, Sym* ..) d) Obtaining info about executable images (ImageNtHeader, FindDebugInfoFile, ..)

Many c) and d) functions are duplicates (same declaration) also found and exported from imagehlp.dll. While many imaghlp functions are simply forwarded to dbghelp functions, a disassembly of some functions reveals that they are obviously build from the same sources (see disassembly on next slide). While some MS Tools prefer the usage of DbgHelp.dll, some tools like Visual Studio or Dependency Walker rely on imagehlp.dll or use both libraries.

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dbghelp!ImageNtHeader vs. imagehlp!ImageNtHeader

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ImageHlp Dependencies

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Debugger Engine API: dbgeng.dll

Documented in WinDbgs documentation
To get the header and lib files for dbgeng.dll: Chose Custom Installation and select "SDK" components in addition to the standard items.

Included in the operating system, starting with Windows XP Accessible through interfaces:
IDebugAdvanced, IDebugControl, IDebugSystemObjects, ...

Everything that can be performed by a debugger is exposed by an

interface

Fact 1: WinDbg is really just a shell on top of a debugging engine. Fact 2: You can write new standalone tools on top of this engine.
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DbgEng Dependencies

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Debug Symbols
Executables are just sequences of raw bytes Symbols help the debugger to:

map raw addresses in the executable to source-code lines analyze internal layout and data of applications

Program Database

PDB Files

The newest Microsoft debug information format COFF and CodeView are considered deprecated. PDBs are stored in a file separately from the executable PDB format is not documented There are special APIs to work with it: DbgHelp.dll and MsDiaXY.dll

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Kinds of Debug Information

Kind of information
Public functions and variables FPO information Private functions and variables Source file and line information Type information

Description
Functions and variables visible across several compilation units (source files) Additional information needed for retrieving stack-frames when compiling with FPO optimization (frame pointer omission) All functions and variables including local variables, function parameters, .. Source file and line information Additional information for functions and variables. Variables: type (int, string, ..) Functions: number and type of parameters, calling convention, return value

linker: /pdbstripped

Public Symbols for MS modules (kernel32.dll, user32.dll, ..) are always stripped.

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Generating Debug Information

The build process consists of two steps 1) compiler: generates machine instructions which are stored into .OBJ files 2) linker: combines all available .OBJ and .LIB files into the final executable For Debug Information we also need two steps: 1) compiler: generates debug information for every source file 2) linker: combines available debug information into the final set of debug information for the executable

Compiler options: /Z7, /Zi, /ZI Linker options: /debug, /pdb, /pdbstripped
Point of interest for Static libraries: Use /Z7 to store the debug information in the resulting .LIB file.

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Matching Debug Information

Signature stored into executable and PDB file during build
For PDB 2.0 files: Time Stamp For PDB 7.0 files: GUID generated during build

For a debugger match this signature must be the same

Algorithm to search PDB files: 1. Try module (EXE or DLL) folder 2. Try name and path specified in the PE file (the NB10 or RSDS debug header) 3. Try environment variables: _NT_SYMBOL_PATH and _NT_ALT_SYMBOL_PATH
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Call Stack
Without valid symbols
002df350 ntdll!DbgBreakPoint 002df43c TestApplication+0x127eb 002df544 TestApplication+0x12862 002df550 MFC80UD!AfxDlgProc+0x3e 002df57c USER32!InternalCallWinProc+0x28 002df5f8 USER32!UserCallDlgProcCheckWow+0x102 002df648 USER32!DefDlgProcWorker+0xb2 002df668 USER32!DefDlgProcW+0x29 002df694 USER32!InternalCallWinProc+0x28 002df70c USER32!UserCallWinProcCheckWow+0x16a 002df744 USER32!CallWindowProcAorW+0xab 002df764 USER32!CallWindowProcW+0x1b 002df788 MFC80UD!CWnd::DefWindowProcW+0x32 002df7a4 MFC80UD!CWnd::Default+0x3b 002df7c8 MFC80UD!CDialog::HandleInitDialog+0xd3 002df900 MFC80UD!CWnd::OnWndMsg+0x817 002df920 MFC80UD!CWnd::WindowProc+0x30 002df99c MFC80UD!AfxCallWndProc+0xee 002df9bc MFC80UD!AfxWndProc+0xa4 002df9f8 MFC80UD!AfxWndProcBase+0x59

With valid symbols

002df350 ntdll!DbgBreakPoint 002df43c TestApplication!CMyDlg::PreInit+0x3b [MyDlg.cpp @ 75] 002df544 TestApplication!CMyDlg::OnInitDialog+0x52 [MyDlg.cpp @ 91] 002df550 MFC80UD!AfxDlgProc+0x3e 002df57c USER32!InternalCallWinProc+0x28 002df5f8 USER32!UserCallDlgProcCheckWow+0x102 002df648 USER32!DefDlgProcWorker+0xb2 002df668 USER32!DefDlgProcW+0x29 002df694 USER32!InternalCallWinProc+0x28 002df70c USER32!UserCallWinProcCheckWow+0x16a 002df744 USER32!CallWindowProcAorW+0xab 002df764 USER32!CallWindowProcW+0x1b 002df788 MFC80UD!CWnd::DefWindowProcW+0x32 002df7a4 MFC80UD!CWnd::Default+0x3b 002df7c8 MFC80UD!CDialog::HandleInitDialog+0xd3 002df900 MFC80UD!CWnd::OnWndMsg+0x817 002df920 MFC80UD!CWnd::WindowProc+0x30 002df99c MFC80UD!AfxCallWndProc+0xee 002df9bc MFC80UD!AfxWndProc+0xa4 002df9f8 MFC80UD!AfxWndProcBase+0x59

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Invasive vs. Noninvasive Debugging and Attaching

Invasive attach:
DebugActiveProcess is called break-in thread is created prior to Windows XP: target application is killed on debugger exit or detach there can be only one invasive debugger attached to a process at any time

Noninvasive attach:

OpenProcess is called no break-in thread is created we dont attach to the process as a debugger all threads of the target application are frozen we can change and examine memory we cannot set breakpoints we cannot step through the application we can exit or detach the debugger without killing the target application we can attach several noninvasive debuggers to a process (+ one invasive debugger)
useful if: the target application is being debugged by Visual Studio (or any other invasive debugger), we can still attach WinDBG as a noninvasive debugger in order to get additional information the target application is completely frozen and cannot launch the break-in thread necessary for a true attach

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Exceptions
A system mechanism that isnt language specific.

Exceptions are made accessible through language extensions.

Example: the __try & __except construct in C++.

Don't use try-catch-except for condition checking in time critical parts of your application.
For every exception the system creates an exception record, searches for frame based exception handlers (catch-except) through all stack frames in reverse order, and finally continues with program execution. This can result in performance degradation due to the execution of hundreds of instructions.

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Exception Dispatching

1) 2)

The system first attempts to notify the process's debugger, if any If the process is not being debugged, or if the associated debugger does not handle the exception (WinDbg gN == Go with Exception Not Handled), the system attempts to locate a frame-based exception handler If no frame-based handler can be found, or no frame-based handler handles the exception, the UnhandledExceptionFilter makes a second attempt to notify the process's debugger. This is known as second-chance or last-chance notification. If the process is not being debugged, or if the associated debugger does not handle the exception, the postmortem debugger specified in AeDebug will be started.

3)

4)

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Exception Dispatching and SetUnhandledExceptionFilter

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AeDebug? Postmortem Debugging!

Set/Change postmortem debugger:
WinDbg -I drwtsn32 -i

Postmortem settings:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
Whatever program is specified in AeDebug is run. No validation is made that the program is actually a debugger!

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Table of Contents - Roadmap

Behind the Scenes Using WinDbg

Global Flags Application Verifier Process Dumps

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WinDbg Commands
Regular commands
are used to debug processes Examples: k, lm, g

Meta or Dot-Commands
usually control the behavior of the debugger Examples: .sympath, .cls, .lastevent, .detach, .if

Extension Commands
implemented as exported functions in extension DLLs are a large part of what makes WinDbg such a powerful debugger there is a set of preinstalled extension DLLs: exts.dll, ntsdexts.dll, uext.dll, wow64exts.dll, kdexts.dll, .. we can write our own extension DLLs Examples: !analyze, !address, !handle, !peb

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Main Extensions
!exts.help !Uext.help !Ntsdexts.help !Kdexts.help !logexts.help !clr10\sos.help !wow64exts.help .. General Extensions User-Mode Extensions (non-OS specific) User-Mode Extensions (OS specific) Kernel-Mode Extensions Logger Extensions Debugging Managed Code Wow64 Debugger Extensions

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Symbols in WinDbg
_NT_SYMBOL_PATH environment variable must be set
Example for MS symbols: _NT_SYMBOL_PATH=srv*C:\Symbols\MsSymbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols; With this setting WinDbg will automatically download all needed symbols for MS components (i.e. kernel32) from the MS server.

In WinDbgs GUI you can access symbol settings from:

(Menu) File Symbol File Path (Ctrl+S)

Useful Commands:
.sympath get/set path for symbol search append XY directory to the searched symbol path instructs the debugger to display information about its search for symbols load symbols for kernel32.dll load symbols for all modules reloads symbol information examine and list all symbols in kernel32 list all symbols in kernel32 which contain *LoadLibrary* display all variables in ntdll

.sympath +XY
!sym noisy ld kernel32 ld * .reload x kernel32!* dt ntdll!*

x kernel32!*LoadLibrary*

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Sources in WinDbg
_NT_SOURCE_PATH environment variable must be set
Example: _NT_SOURCE_PATH=C:\Sources

In WinDbgs GUI you can access source settings from:

(Menu) File Source File Path (Ctrl+P)

Useful Commands:
.srcpath .srcpath+ XY get/set path for source-file search append XY directory to the searched source path

Important: Be sure to set up the symbols and sources for WinDbg correctly. This is the first and most important step where people new to WinDbg often fail. Note that without symbols for MS components (kernel32.dll, ntdll.dll,.. ) many commands in the following sections will not work. 25
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Processes and Threads on Windows NT

Every Windows process is represented by an executive process block (EPROCESS) in kernel-mode EPROCESS points to a number of related data structures; for example, each process has one or more threads represented by executive thread blocks (ETHREAD) EPROCESS points to a process environment block (PEB) in process address space ETHREAD points to a thread environment block (TEB) in process address space 26
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PEB and TEB

PEB = Process Environment Block
basic image information (base address, version numbers, module list) process heap information environment variables command-line parameter DLL search path Display it: !peb, dt nt!_PEB

TEB = Thread Environment block

stack information (stack-base and stack-limit) TLS (Thread Local Storage) array Display it: !teb, dt nt!_TEB

FACT: Many WinDbg commands (lm, !dlls, !imgreloc, !tls, !gle) rely on the data retrieved from PEB and TEB.
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Example - PEB dump

0:001> dt nt!_PEB -r @$peb // @$peb = address of our processs PEB (see pseudo-register syntax) +0x000 InheritedAddressSpace : 0 '' +0x001 ReadImageFileExecOptions : 0 '' +0x002 BeingDebugged : 0x1 '' .. +0x008 ImageBaseAddress : 0x00400000 +0x00c Ldr : 0x7d6a01e0 _PEB_LDR_DATA +0x000 Length : 0x28 +0x004 Initialized : 0x1 '' +0x008 SsHandle : (null) +0x00c InLoadOrderModuleList : _LIST_ENTRY [ 0x2d1eb0 - 0x2da998 ] +0x000 Flink : 0x002d1eb0 _LIST_ENTRY [ 0x2d1f08 - 0x7d6a01ec ] +0x004 Blink : 0x002da998 _LIST_ENTRY [ 0x7d6a01ec - 0x2d9f38 ] +0x014 InMemoryOrderModuleList : _LIST_ENTRY [ 0x2d1eb8 - 0x2da9a0 ] .. +0x01c InInitializationOrderModuleList : _LIST_ENTRY [ 0x2d1f18 - 0x2da9a8 ] .. +0x024 EntryInProgress : (null) +0x010 ProcessParameters : 0x001c0000 _RTL_USER_PROCESS_PARAMETERS +0x000 MaximumLength : 0x102c +0x004 Length : 0x102c +0x008 Flags : 0x4001 +0x00c DebugFlags : 0 .. +0x024 CurrentDirectory : _CURDIR +0x000 DosPath : _UNICODE_STRING "D:\Development\Utils\" +0x008 Handle : 0x00000024 +0x030 DllPath : _UNICODE_STRING "C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS\system;C:\WINDOWS;... ..

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WinDbg Commands for Retrieving Process and Module Information

Command
!peb dt nt!_PEB Addr lm lmD lm vm kernel32 !lmi kernel32 !dlls

Description
displays a formatted view of the information in the process environment block (PEB) full PEB dump list loaded and unloaded modules -||- (output in Debugger Markup Language) verbose output (including image and symbol information) for kernel32 similar implementation as an extension display list of loaded modules with loader specific information (entry point, load count) same as before for kernel32 only display relocation information display the headers for kernel32 29
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!dlls c kernel32 !imgreloc !dh kernel32

Example - Module Information

0:001>!dlls -c msvcrt Dump dll containing 0x77ba0000: 0x002d40c0: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll Base 0x77ba0000 EntryPoint 0x77baf78b Flags 0x80084006 LoadCount 0x00000007 LDRP_STATIC_LINK LDRP_IMAGE_DLL LDRP_ENTRY_PROCESSED LDRP_PROCESS_ATTACH_CALLED

Size TlsIndex

0x0005a000 0x00000000

0:001> lm vm msvcrt start end module name 77ba0000 77bfa000 msvcrt (deferred) Image path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll Image name: msvcrt.dll Timestamp: Fri Mar 25 03:33:02 2005 (4243785E) CheckSum: 0006288A ImageSize: 0005A000 File version: 7.0.3790.1830 Product version: 6.1.8638.1830 ... CompanyName: Microsoft Corporation ProductName: Microsoft Windows Operating System InternalName: msvcrt.dll OriginalFilename: msvcrt.dll ProductVersion: 7.0.3790.1830 FileVersion: 7.0.3790.1830 (srv03_sp1_rtm.050324-1447) FileDescription: Windows NT CRT DLL LegalCopyright: Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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WinDbg Commands for Retrieving Thread Information

Command ~ ~0 ~. ~* ~* k ~<thread>s !gle !runaway !teb dt nt!_TEB Addr Description thread status for all threads thread status for thread 0 thread status for currently active thread thread status for all threads with some extra info (priority, StartAdress) call stacks for all threads ~ !uniqstack set current thread Get last error
displays information about time consumed by each thread quick way to find out which threads are spinning out of control or consuming too much CPU time

displays a formatted view of the information in the thread environment block (TEB) full TEB dump 31
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Example - Threads
0:001> !runaway 7 User Mode Time Thread Time 0:d28 0 days 1:2b0 0 days Kernel Mode Time Thread Time 0:d28 0 days 1:2b0 0 days Elapsed Time Thread Time 0:d28 0 days 1:2b0 0 days

0:00:00.015 0:00:00.000

0:00:00.093 0:00:00.000

0:04:04.156 0:03:53.328

0:000> ~* . 0 Id: dac.d28 Suspend: 1 Teb: 7efdd000 Unfrozen Start: TestApp!ILT+1415(_wWinMainCRTStartup) (0041158c) Priority: 0 Priority class: 32 Affinity: 3 1 Id: dac.2b0 Suspend: 1 Teb: 7efda000 Unfrozen Start: 00000001 Priority: 0 Priority class: 32 Affinity: 3

0:000> !gle LastErrorValue: (Win32) 0 (0) - The operation completed successfully. LastStatusValue: (NTSTATUS) 0 - STATUS_WAIT_0

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Windows and Menus in WinDbg

WinDbgs windows can be docked or floating.
1)

Docked Windows = the preferred way of using windows

Shrink and grow with the WinDbg frame Are positioned and sized relatively to each other as the frame changes Can be tabbed. Tabbed windows are overlaid WinDbg supports multiple docks (handy for a multi-monitor system) Ctrl-Tab iterates through all windows in all docks

2)

Undocked or floating windows

Are always on top of the WinDbg window

Each window in WinDbg has its own menu.

Menus can be accessed by a:

left-click on the menu button (next to the close button) right-click on the title bar of a window right-click on the tab of a tabbed window

Be sure to check these menus. They are often hiding interesting features.
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Example of a Running Instance of WinDbg

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Debugger Markup Language (DML)

DML allows debugger output to include directives and extra non-display information in the form of tags Debugger user interfaces parse out the extra information to provide new behaviors DML is primarily intended to address the following issues:
Linking of related information Discoverability of debugger and extension functionality Enhancing output from the debugger and extensions

DML was introduced with version 6.6.0.7 of Debugging Tools

DML Command Description Kick of to other DML commands Global setting: all DML-enhanced commands will produce DML output .help has a new DML mode where a top bar of links is given .chain has a new DML mode where extensions are linked to a .extmatch Check ..\Debugging Tools for Windows\dml.doc for more commands.

.dml_start .prefer_dml 1 .help /D a* .chain /D

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DML in WinDbg

Note that you can click on any link If you right-click on it, you can even start the command in a new window 36
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Memory: Stack Details

From MSDN:
Each new thread receives its own stack space, consisting of both committed and reserved memory. By default, each thread uses 1 Mb of reserved memory, and one page of committed memory. The system will commit one page block from the reserved stack memory as needed. (see MSDN CreateThread > dwStackSize > "Thread Stack Size").

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Example - Stack Size for a Thread

0:000> !teb TEB at 7ffdf000 ExceptionList: StackBase: StackLimit: 0012f784 00130000 0012c000

0:000> dt ntdll!_TEB DeallocationStack 7ffdf000 +0xe0c DeallocationStack : 0x00030000 0:000> !address esp AllocBase : SubRegionBase - SubRegionSize 00030000 : 0012c000 - 00004000 Type 00020000 MEM_PRIVATE Protect 00000004 PAGE_READWRITE State 00001000 MEM_COMMIT Usage RegionUsageStack Pid.Tid e34.e78

0:000> ? 00130000 - 0012c000 Evaluate expression: 16384 = 00004000 0:000> ? 00130000 - 00030000 Evaluate expression: 1048576 = 00100000

0x004000 0x100000

Our thread has 4 pages or 16KB of committed memory. Our thread has 256 pages or 1MB of reserved memory.

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Memory: Stack Growth

The ESP register points to the current stack location of a thread. If a program attempts to access an address within a guard page, the system raises a STATUS_GUARD_PAGE_VIOLATION (0x80000001) exception. A guard page provides a one-shot alarm for memory page access. If a stack grows until the end of reserved memory, a STATUS_STACK_OVERFLOW is raised.

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Example - Stack Growth

0:000> !teb TEB at 7ffdf000 ExceptionList: StackBase: StackLimit: 0012f784 00130000 0012c000

0:000> dt ntdll!_TEB DeallocationStack 7ffdf000 +0xe0c DeallocationStack : 0x00030000 0:000> ? 00130000 - 0012c000 Evaluate expression: 16384 = 00004000 0x004000 0x100000 Our thread has 4 pages or 16KB of committed memory. Our thread has 256 pages or 1MB of reserved memory.

------------------------------------------------------------------0:000> !teb TEB at 7ffdf000 ExceptionList: StackBase: StackLimit:

0012f784 00130000 00033000

0:000> ? 00130000 - 00033000 Evaluate expression: 1036288 = 000fd000 0x0fd000 Now our thread has 253 pages of committed memory. The system will throw a stack-overflow exception if another page will be requested.

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WinDbg Commands for Retrieving Call-Stack Information

Command !uniqstack !findstack MySymbol 2 k kP kf kv kb kM Description displays call-stacks for all of the threads in the current process locates all call-stacks that contain MySymbol display call stack for current thread P == full parameters for each function called f == distance between adjacent frames to be displayed (useful to check stack consumption of each frame) v == display FPO information + calling convention b == display the first three parameters passed to each function Output in DML format; frame numbers link to a .frame/dv command which displays locals for the frame

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Example - UniqStack
0:000> !uniqstack Processing 2 threads, please wait . Id: dac.154c Suspend: 1 Teb: 7efdd000 Unfrozen Start: TestApp!ILT+1415(_wWinMainCRTStartup) (0041158c) Priority: 0 Priority class: 32 Affinity: 3 ChildEBP RetAddr 002df44c 00411eeb ntdll!DbgBreakPoint 002df52c 783c2100 TestApp!CMyDialog::OnBnClicked_ExecuteBreakPoint+0x2b [d:\TestApp\MyDialog.cpp @ 72] 002df570 783c2842 MFC80UD!_AfxDispatchCmdMsg+0xb0 002df5d4 7839d671 MFC80UD!CCmdTarget::OnCmdMsg+0x2e2 002df610 7836142d MFC80UD!CDialog::OnCmdMsg+0x21 ... 002dffb8 0041371d TestApp!__tmainCRTStartup+0x289 [f:\sp\vctools\crt_bld\self_x86\crt\src\crtexe.c @ 589] 002dffc0 7d4e992a TestApp!wWinMainCRTStartup+0xd [f:\sp\vctools\crt_bld\self_x86\crt\src\crtexe.c @ 414] 002dfff0 00000000 kernel32!BaseProcessStart+0x28 . Id: dac.127c Suspend: 1 Teb: 7efda000 Unfrozen Start: 00000001 Priority: 0 Priority class: 32 Affinity: 3 ChildEBP RetAddr 0242f550 7d626c3f ntdll!NtQueryAttributesFile+0x12 .. 0242ff08 7d62b958 ntdll!LdrpCallInitRoutine+0x14 0242ffbc 7d674613 ntdll!LdrShutdownThread+0xd2 0242ffc4 7d665017 ntdll!RtlExitUserThread+0xa 0242fff4 00000000 ntdll!DbgUiRemoteBreakin+0x41 Total threads: 2 1 0

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WinDbg Commands for Memory Handling

Command d, dd, da, du, .. Description Display memory dd == double word values da == display ASCII characters du == display Unicode characters fill memory Displays virtual memory protection information for MyAddr Display information (type, protection, usage, ..) about the memory specified by MyAddr Display stack regions for all threads in the process Display Words and Symbols Display Referenced Memory. If a match to a known symbol is found, this symbol is displayed as well. 43
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f !vprot MyAddr !address MyAddr !address -RegionUsageStack dds ddp

Example Processs Memory Information

0:000> !address 00000000 : 00000000 - 00010000 Type 00000000 Protect 00000001 PAGE_NOACCESS State 00010000 MEM_FREE Usage RegionUsageFree 00010000 : 00010000 - 00001000 Type 00020000 MEM_PRIVATE Protect 00000004 PAGE_READWRITE State 00001000 MEM_COMMIT Usage RegionUsageEnvironmentBlock -------------------- Usage SUMMARY -------------------------TotSize ( KB) Pct(Tots) Pct(Busy) Usage 1950000 ( 25920) : 01.24% 36.03% : RegionUsageIsVAD 7b9b1000 ( 2025156) : 96.57% 00.00% : RegionUsageFree 12e2000 ( 19336) : 00.92% 26.88% : RegionUsageImage 110000 ( 1088) : 00.05% 01.51% : RegionUsageStack 2000 ( 8) : 00.00% 00.01% : RegionUsageTeb 2a0000 ( 2688) : 00.13% 03.74% : RegionUsageHeap 1658000 ( 22880) : 01.09% 31.81% : RegionUsagePageHeap 1000 ( 4) : 00.00% 00.01% : RegionUsagePeb 1000 ( 4) : 00.00% 00.01% : RegionUsageProcessParametrs 1000 ( 4) : 00.00% 00.01% : RegionUsageEnvironmentBlock Tot: 7fff0000 (2097088 KB) Busy: 0463f000 (71932 KB) -------------------- State SUMMARY -------------------------TotSize ( KB) Pct(Tots) Usage 2efa000 ( 48104) : 02.29% : MEM_COMMIT 7b9b1000 ( 2025156) : 96.57% : MEM_FREE 1745000 ( 23828) : 01.14% : MEM_RESERVE

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WinDbg Commands for Retrieving Heap Information

Command !heap -? !heap -h !heap -s 0 !heap -flt s Size !heap -stat !heap -stat -h 0 !heap -p !heap -p -all !heap -p -a UserAddr Description
Brief help List heaps with index and range (= startAddr, endAddr) Summary for all heaps = reserved and committed memory, .. Dump info for allocations matching Size Dump HeapHandle list HeapHandle = value returned by HeapCreate or GetProcessHeap Dump usage statistic for every AllocSize = AllocSize, #blocks, and TotalMem for each AllocSize GFlags settings, HeapHandle list Details of all allocations in all heaps in the process = all HeapAlloc calls listed Details of heap allocation containing UserAddr (i.e. the address returned by HeapAlloc). Prints back traces when available.

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More Heap Structs

If page heap is disabled for your application, then the following structs apply. Note that page heap is disabled by default.

_HEAP struct
Defined in ntdll.dll: dt ntdll!_HEAP For every HeapCreate there is a unique _HEAP You can use "!heap -p -all" to get addresses for all _HEAP structs in your process

_HEAP_ENTRY struct
Defined in ntdll.dll: dt ntdll!_HEAP_ENTRY For every HeapAlloc there is a unique _HEAP_ENTRY You can use "!heap -p -all" to get addresses for all heap entries in your process

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Page Heap Structs

If page heap is enabled for your application, then the following structs apply. You can enable page heap with Global Flags (gflags.exe).

_DPH_HEAP_ROOT struct
Defined in ntdll.dll: dt ntdll!_DPH_HEAP_ROOT For every HeapCreate there is a unique _DPH_HEAP_ROOT You can use "!heap -p -all" to get addresses for all heap roots in your process
Usually address of a _DPH_HEAP_ROOT = value of HeapHandle + 0x1000

_DPH_HEAP_BLOCK struct
Defined in ntdll.dll: dt ntdll!_DPH_HEAP_BLOCK For every HeapAlloc there is a unique _DPH_HEAP_BLOCK You can use "!heap -p -all" to get addresses for all heap blocks in your process

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Who called HeapAlloc?

Enable stack traces and page heap for you application
Start GFlags, select "Create user mode stack trace database" and Enable page heap for your image Or from the command line: gflags.exe /i <IMAGE.EXE> +ust +hpa

Restart your application and attach WinDbg From WinDbgs command line: !heap -p -a <UserAddr>
<UserAddr> = address of our allocation (returned by HeapAlloc, new, ..) Will dump the call-stack but without source information

dt ntdll!_DPH_HEAP_BLOCK StackTrace <MyHeapBlockAddr>

<MyHeapBlockAddr> = DPH_HEAP_BLOCK address retrieved in previous step StackTrace = member of DPH_HEAP_BLOCK which stores the call stack for our HeapAlloc

dds <StackTrace>
<StackTrace> = value retrieved in previous step dds will dump the call-stack with source information included

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Example - Who called HeapAlloc?

// HeapAlloc( 0x00150000, 8, dwBytes =0x00A00000 ) -->> 0x025F1000; 0:000> !heap -p -a 0x025F1000 address 025f1000 found in _DPH_HEAP_ROOT @ 151000 in busy allocation ( DPH_HEAP_BLOCK: UserAddr UserSize 25f1000 a00000 15449c: 7c91b298 ntdll!RtlAllocateHeap+0x00000e64 0045b8b1 TestApp!CMyDlg::OnBnClicked_HeapAlloc+0x00000051 004016e0 TestApp!_AfxDispatchCmdMsg+0x00000043 004018ed TestApp!CCmdTarget::OnCmdMsg+0x00000118 00408f7f TestApp!CDialog::OnCmdMsg+0x0000001b 0:000> dt ntdll!_DPH_HEAP_BLOCK StackTrace 15449c +0x024 StackTrace : 0x0238e328 _RTL_TRACE_BLOCK 0:000> dds 0x0238e328 0238e328 abcdaaaa 0238e334 00000001 0238e338 00a00000 0238e33c 00151000 0238e340 01b17b1c 0238e344 0238e348 0238e348 7c91b298 ntdll!RtlAllocateHeap+0xe64 0238e34c 0045b8b1 TestApp!CMyDlg::OnBnClicked_HeapAlloc+0x51 [d:\development\sources\TestApp\MyDlg.cpp @ 366] 0238e350 004016e0 TestApp!_AfxDispatchCmdMsg+0x43 [f:\sp\vctools\vc7libs\ship\atlmfc\src\mfc\cmdtarg.cpp @ 82] 0238e354 004018ed TestApp!CCmdTarget::OnCmdMsg+0x118 [f:\sp\vctools\vc7libs\ship\atlmfc\src\mfc\cmdtarg.cpp @ 381] 0238e358 00408f7f TestApp!CDialog::OnCmdMsg+0x1b [f:\sp\vctools\vc7libs\ship\atlmfc\src\mfc\dlgcore.cpp @ 85]

VirtAddr 25f0000

VirtSize) a02000

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Who called HeapCreate?

Enable stack traces and page heap for you application
Start GFlags, select "Create user mode stack trace database" and Enable page heap for your image Or from the command line: gflags.exe /i <IMAGE.EXE> +ust +hpa

Restart your application and attach WinDbg From WinDbgs command line: !heap -p h <HeapHandle>
<HeapHandle> = value returned by HeapCreate You can do a !heap -stat or !heap -p to get a list of heaps for you process and their handles

dt ntdll!_DPH_HEAP_ROOT CreateStackTrace <MyHeapRootAddr>

<MyHeapRootAddr> = DPH_HEAP_ROOT address retrieved in previous step CreateStackTrace = member of DPH_HEAP_ROOT which stores the call stack for our HeapCreate call

dds <CreateStackTrace>
<CreateStackTrace> = value retrieved in previous step dds will dump the call-stack with source information included

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Example - Who called HeapCreate?

// HeapCreate( 0x0000000A, 0, 0 ) -->> 0x03000000; 0:000> !heap -p -h 0x03000000 _DPH_HEAP_ROOT @ 3001000 Freed and decommitted blocks DPH_HEAP_BLOCK : VirtAddr VirtSize Busy allocations DPH_HEAP_BLOCK : UserAddr UserSize - VirtAddr VirtSize

0:000> dt ntdll!_DPH_HEAP_ROOT CreateStackTrace 3001000 +0x08c CreateStackTrace : 0x0238e328 _RTL_TRACE_BLOCK 0:000> dds 0x0238e328 0238e328 abcdaaaa 0238e32c 00000001 0238e330 00000010 0238e334 00000000 0238e338 00000000 0238e33c 00000000 0238e340 00000000 0238e344 0238e348 0238e348 7c93a874 ntdll!RtlCreateHeap+0x41 0238e34c 7c812bff kernel32!HeapCreate+0x55 0238e350 0045b841 TestApp!CMyDlg::OnBnClicked_HeapCreate+0x31 [d:\development\sources\TestApp\MyDlg.cpp @ 345] 0238e354 0040b122 TestApp!_AfxDispatchCmdMsg+0x43 [f:\sp\vctools\vc7libs\ship\atlmfc\src\mfc\cmdtarg.cpp @ 82] 0238e358 0040b32f TestApp!CCmdTarget::OnCmdMsg+0x118 [f:\sp\vctools\vc7libs\ship\atlmfc\src\mfc\cmdtarg.cpp @ 381] 0238e35c 00408838 TestApp!CDialog::OnCmdMsg+0x1b [f:\sp\vctools\vc7libs\ship\atlmfc\src\mfc\dlgcore.cpp @ 85]

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Finding Memory Leaks on the Heap

!address summary
Summary about memory usage for your process. If RegionUsageHeap or RegionUsagePageHeap is growing constantly, then you might have a memory leak on the heap. Proceed with the following steps.

Enable stack traces and page heap for you application Restart your application and attach WinDbg From WinDbgs command line: !heap stat h 0
Will list down handle specific allocation statistics for every AllocSize. For every AllocSize the following is listed: AllocSize, #blocks, and TotalMem. Take the AllocSize with maximum TotalMem.

!heap flt s <size>

<size> = size being allocated by HeapAlloc. Value retrieved in previous step.

!heap -p -a <UserAddr>
<UserAddr> = address of our allocation (returned by HeapAlloc, new, ..) Will dump the call-stack but without source information. Check the Who called HeapAlloc? slide for how to proceed to get a call-stack with source information included.

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Example - Finding Memory Leaks on the Heap

0:001> !heap -stat -h 0 Allocations statistics for heap @ 00150000 group-by: TOTSIZE max-display: 20 size #blocks total 100000 101 - 10100000 928 2 - 1250 64 24 - e10

( %) (percent of total busy bytes) (99.99) 0x101 * 1MB allocated. Looks like a good candidate for a memory leak. (0.00) (0.00)

0:001> !heap -flt s 100000 _DPH_HEAP_ROOT @ 151000 Freed and decommitted blocks DPH_HEAP_BLOCK : VirtAddr VirtSize Busy allocations DPH_HEAP_BLOCK : UserAddr UserSize 024f0698 : 13831000 00100000 024f0620 : 13721000 00100000 There should be 0x101 entries with

get all allocations with size: 100000

VirtAddr VirtSize 13830000 00102000 13720000 00102000

size 100000 output here. Lets take the first one with UserAddr=0x13831000

0:001> !heap -p -a 13831000 address 13831000 found in _DPH_HEAP_ROOT @ 151000 in busy allocation ( DPH_HEAP_BLOCK: UserAddr 24f0698: 13831000 7c91b298 ntdll!RtlAllocateHeap+0x00000e64 0045b74e TestApp!CMyDlg ::OnBnClicked_DoMemoryLeak+0x0000003e 0040b122 TestApp!_AfxDispatchCmdMsg+0x00000043 0040b32f TestApp!CCmdTarget ::OnCmdMsg+0x00000118 00408838 TestApp!CDialog ::OnCmdMsg+0x0000001b

UserSize 100000 -

VirtAddr 13830000

VirtSize) 102000

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Critical Section Related Commands

Command !locks !locks -v !cs [Opt] [CsAddr]

Description displays a list of locked critical sections for the process display all critical sections for the process Displays one or more critical sections, or the entire critical section tree.
Options: -l == display only locked sections -s == causes each CSs initialization stack to be displayed -o == causes the owners stack to be displayed -t == display critical section tree EnterCntr, WaitCnt,

!avrf -cs

Display a list of deleted critical sections (DeleteCriticalSection API)

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Example Critical Section

0:000> !cs -s -o 0x0012fe08 ----------------------------------------Critical section = 0x0012fe08 (+0x12FE08) DebugInfo = 0x031c4fe0 LOCKED LockCount = 0x0 OwningThread = 0x00000c8c OwningThread Stack = ChildEBP RetAddr Args to Child 0012f488 004badd9 0012f810 02854f10 00000000 ntdll!DbgBreakPoint 0012f568 0054fd2c 00000000 004bb621 00681d70 TestApp!CMyDialog::OnBnClicked_EnterCs+0x39 0012f594 00550365 0012fd78 0000001c 00000000 TestApp!_AfxDispatchCmdMsg+0x9c 0012f5f0 005517f1 0000001c 00000000 00000000 TestApp!CCmdTarget::OnCmdMsg+0x285 Stack trace for DebugInfo (Initialization Stack)= 0x031c4fe0: 0x7c911a93: ntdll!RtlInitializeCriticalSectionAndSpinCount+0xC9 0x7c809eff: kernel32!InitializeCriticalSection+0xE 0x004c101d: TestApp!CCriticalSection::Init+0x3D 0x004c10a0: TestApp!CCriticalSection::CCriticalSection+0x40 0:000> !cs -t Verifier package version >= 3.00 Tree root 02fd8fd0 Level Node CS Debug InitThr EnterThr WaitThr TryEnThr LeaveThr EnterCnt WaitCnt ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------0 02fd8fd0 0012fe08 031c4fe0 c8c c8c 0 0 0 1 0 1 02fa8fd0 006807f4 03148fe0 c8c 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 02fa2fd0 00680f70 02850fe0 c8c c8c 0 0 c8c 4848 0

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Other useful WinDbg Commands

Command dt dt ntdll!*peb* dt ntdll!_PEB dt ntdll!_PEB 7efde000 dv dv /t /i /V Description Display information about a local variable, function parameter, global variable or data type List all ntdll.dll variables which contain the word peb Display type for PEB Dump PEB at address 7efde000 Display local variables Display local variables
/i == classify them into categories (parameters or locals) /V == show addresses and offsets for the relevant base frame register (usually EBP) /t == display type information

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Example dt & dv
0:000> dt TestApp!CMyDialog +0x000 __VFN_table : Ptr32 =00400000 classCObject : CRuntimeClass =00400000 classCCmdTarget : CRuntimeClass =00400000 _commandEntries : [0] AFX_OLECMDMAP_ENTRY =00400000 commandMap : AFX_OLECMDMAP =00400000 _dispatchEntries : [0] AFX_DISPMAP_ENTRY .. +0x004 m_dwRef : Int4B +0x008 m_pOuterUnknown : Ptr32 IUnknown +0x00c m_xInnerUnknown : Uint4B +0x010 m_xDispatch : CCmdTarget::XDispatch +0x014 m_bResultExpected : Int4B +0x018 m_xConnPtContainer : CCmdTarget::XConnPtContainer +0x01c m_pModuleState : Ptr32 AFX_MODULE_STATE =00400000 classCWnd : CRuntimeClass +0x020 m_hWnd : Ptr32 HWND__ .. +0x064 m_lpDialogInit : Ptr32 Void +0x068 m_pParentWnd : Ptr32 CWnd +0x06c m_hWndTop : Ptr32 HWND__ +0x070 m_pOccDialogInfo : Ptr32 _AFX_OCC_DIALOG_INFO +0x074 m_hIcon : Ptr32 HICON__ +0x078 m_nn : Int4B 0:000> dv /t /i /V prv local 002df440 @ebp-0x08 class CMyDialog * this = 0x002dfe24 prv param 002df450 @ebp+0x08 int nn = 1

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Pseudo-Registers in WinDbg
1)

Virtual registers provided by the debugger Begin with a dollar sign ($) Automatic pseudo-registers
are set by the debugger to certain useful values examples: $ra, $peb, $teb, ..

2)

User-defined pseudo-registers
there are twenty user-defined registers: $t0, $t1, $t2, .., $t19 integer variables that can be used to store intermediate data can additionally hold type-information r? assigns a typed result to an lvalue
r? $t0 = @peb->ProcessParameter
- Assigns a typed value to $t0
- $t0s type is remembered so it can be used in further expressions

?? @$t0->CommandLine

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Automatic Pseudo-Registers
Command $ra $ip $exentry $retreg $csp $peb $teb $tpid $tid $ptrsize $pagesize

Description
Return address currently on the stack. Useful in execution commands, i.e.: g $ra The instruction pointer x86 = EIP, Itanium = IIP, x64 = RIP Entry point of the first executable of the current process Primary return value register X86 = EAX, Itanium = ret0, x64 = rax Call stack pointer X86 = ESP, Itanium = BSP, x64 = RSP Address of the process environment block (PEB) Address of the thread environment block (TEB) of current thread Process ID (PID) Thread ID (tID) Size of a pointer Number of bytes in one page of memory
See Pseudo-Registry Syntax in WinDbgs help.

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Expressions in WinDbg
1)

MASM expressions
evaluated by the ? command each symbol is treated as an addresses (the numerical value of a symbol is the memory address of that symbol to get its value you must dereference it with poi)

source line expressions can be used (`myfile.c:43`) the at sign for register values is optional (eax or @eax are both fine) used in almost all examples in WinDbgs help the only expression syntax used prior to WinDbg version 4.0 of Debugging Tools

2)

C++ expressions
evaluated by the ?? command symbols are understood as appropriate data types source line expressions cannot be used the at sign for register values is required (eax will not work)

MASM operations are always byte based. C++ operations follow C++ type rules (including the scaling of pointer arithmetic). In both cases numerals are treated internally as ULON64 values.

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More About Expressions

MASM:
The numerical value of any symbol is its memory address Any operator can be used with any number Numerals: are interpreted according to the current radix: n [8 | 10 | 16]
Can be overridden by a prefix: 0x (hex), 0n (decimal), 0t (octal), 0y (binary)

C++:
The numerical value of a variable is its actual value Operators can be used only with corresponding data types A symbol that does not correspond to a C++ data type will result in a syntax error Data structures are treated as actual structures and must be used accordingly. They do not have numerical values. The value of a function name or any other entry point is the memory address, treated as a function pointer Numerals: the default is always decimal
Can be overridden by a prefix: 0x (hex), 0 (=zero- octal)

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Example Value of a variable

// -------------------------------------------------------------------

void MyFunction() { int nLocalVar = 7; .. }

// -------------------------------------------------------------------

0:000> dd nLocal1 L1 0012f830 00000007

// MASM syntax // -------------

0:000> ? nLocalVar // get address (memory location) of nLocalVar Evaluate expression: 1243184 = 0012f830 0:000> ? Evaluate 0:000> ? Evaluate dwo(nLocalVar) // get value of nLocalVar - dereference it expression: 7 = 00000007 // (dwo = double-word, poi = pointer sized data) poi(nLocalVar) expression: 7 = 00000007

// C++ syntax // -------------

0:000> ?? nLocalVar int 7 0:000> ?? & nLocalVar int * 0x0012f830

// get value of nLocalVar

// get address (memory location) of nLocalVar

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Example MASM vs. C++ Expressions

// // // // // // // // // // // -----------------------------------------------------------The following examples will return: eax == ebx ? 0 eax > ebx ? 1 eax < ebx ? -1 Note that in the C++ syntax: -> the @ is needed to indicate a register value -> an explicit cast from BOOL to int is necessary -> the comparisation operator is a double equal sign (==) ------------------------------------------------------------

0:000> r eax = 4, ebx = 3 0:000> ? 0*(eax = ebx) + 1*(eax > ebx) + -1*(eax < ebx) Evaluate expression: 1 = 00000001 0:000> ?? 0*(int)(@eax == @ebx) int 1 + 1*(int)(@eax > @ebx) + -1*(int)(@eax < @ebx)

0:000> r eax = 3, ebx = 4 0:000> ? 0*(eax = ebx) + 1*(eax > ebx) + -1*(eax < ebx) Evaluate expression: -1 = ffffffff 0:000> ?? 0*(int)(@eax == @ebx) int -1 + 1*(int)(@eax > @ebx) + -1*(int)(@eax < @ebx)

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Common Numeric MASM Operators

Unary operators
Operator dwo, qwo, poi Description
dwo = dword from specified address; qwo = qword from specified address; poi = pointer-size data from specified address

wo, by

wo = low-order word from specified address by = low-order byte from specified address

Binary operators
Operator = (or ==), != <, >, <=, >= and (or &), xor (or ^), or (or |) +, -, *, / <<, >>, >>> Description
Equal to, not equal to Less than, greater than, less than or equal to, greater or equal to Bitwise AND, bitwise XOR, bitwise OR Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division Left shift, right shift, arithmetic right shift

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Some Non-Numeric Operators in MASM

Operator $iment( Address) $scmp( String1, String2) $sicmp ( String1, String2) $spat ( String, Pattern) Description
Returns the image entry point. Address = image base address Evaluates to -1, 0, or 1. See strcmp. Evaluates to -1, 0, or 1. See stricmp. TRUE FALSE String matches Pattern; String doesnt match Pattern;

Pattern = can be an alias or string constant but not a memory pointer (i.e. you cannot use a poi (address) directly with $spat. You must save the result into an alias first). Pattern may contain a variety of wildcard specifiers.

$vvalid(Address, Length)

1 0

memory in the given range is valid memory is invalid

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Optimizations
To avoid unnecessary symbol lookup time: MASM:
The usage of @ for registers is recommended. Otherwise they may be interpreted as symbols.

C++:
Prefix for local symbols: $!MySymbol Prefix for global symbols: <moduleName>!MySymbol

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Example Structs in C++ Syntax

// ------------------------------------------------------------------// For better performance: $!symName for local symbols // <ModuleName>!symName for global symbols // -------------------------------------------------------------------

0:000> ?? dlg.m_nn int 0 0:000> ?? $!dlg.m_nn int 0 0:000> ?? sizeof($!dlg.m_nn) unsigned int 0xac 0:000> ?? ((MyModule!CMyDlg*) 0x12f878)->m_nn int 0

0:000> ?? ((ntdll!_TEB*) 0x7ffdf000)->ClientId struct _CLIENT_ID +0x000 UniqueProcess : 0x000017d8 // +0x004 UniqueThread : 0x00000ea8 // 0:000> ?? @$teb->ClientId struct _CLIENT_ID +0x000 UniqueProcess +0x004 UniqueThread

PID TID

// The C++ expression evaluator casts

// pseudo-registers to their appropriate types : 0x000017d8 : 0x00000ea8

0:001> r? $t0 = @$peb->ProcessParameters // Note that type information is preserved 0:001> ?? @$t0->CommandLine // for user-defined pseudo registers struct _UNICODE_STRING ""D:\Development\Sources\CrashMe\release\CrashMe.exe" " +0x000 Length : 0x6a +0x002 MaximumLength : 0x6c +0x004 Buffer : 0x00020724 ""D:\Development\Sources\CrashMe\release\CrashMe.exe" "

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Example Pointer Arithmetic

// // // // // -----------------------------------------------------------int myInt[2] = { 1,2 }; Note that MASM operations are always byte based, whereas pointer arithmetic is used for c++ operations. ------------------------------------------------------------

// MASM syntax // -------------

0:000> ? Evaluate 0:000> ? Evaluate 0:000> ? Evaluate 0:000> ? Evaluate

myInt expression: 1243256 = 0012f878 dwo(myInt) expression: 1 = 00000001 myInt+4 expression: 1243260 = 0012f87c dwo(myInt+4) expression: 2 = 00000002

// C++ syntax // -------------

0:000> ?? (&myInt) int * 0x0012f878 0:000> ?? myInt int [2] 0x0012f878 1 0:000> ?? (&myInt+1) int * 0x0012f87c 0:000> ?? *(&myInt+1) int 2

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Default Expression Evaluator

The following always use the C++ expression evaluator:
?? command (evaluate C++ expression) the watch window the locals window

All other commands and debugging information windows use the default expression evaluator You can use the .expr command to change the default evaluator
.expr .expr /q .expr /s c++ .expr /s masm show current evaluator show available evaluators set c++ as the default expression evaluator set masm as the default expression evaluator

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Mixing Both Evaluators on-the-fly

You can use both expression evaluators within one command For mixing both modes: @@()
If any portion of an expression is enclosed in parentheses and prefixed by a double @@, it will be evaluated by the opposite of the current expression evaluator this way you can use two different evaluators for different parameters of a single command It is possible to nest these symbols; each appearance of this symbol switches to the other expression evaluator

Explicitly specify an expression evaluator

@@c++() @@masm()

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Example Mixed Expression

// ------------------------------------------------------------------// The following command will set the default expression evaluator to // MASM, and then evaluate Expression1 and Expression3 as MASM // expressions, while evaluating Expression2 as a C++ expression: // -------------------------------------------------------------------

0:000> .expr /s masm 0:000> ? Expression1 + @@( Expression2) + Expression3

0:000> ? `myFile.cpp:118` Evaluate expression: 4570359 = 0045bcf7

// get address of line 118 in myFile.cpp

// // // // //

------------------------------------------------------------------source-line expressions cannot be used in C++ expressions lets nest a MASM expression within a C++ expression store address of line 43 of myFile.cpp into nLocalVar -------------------------------------------------------------------

0:000> ?? nLocalVar = @@(`myFile.cpp:118`) int 4570359

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Aliases in WinDbg
1)

Strings that are automatically replaced with other character strings Consist of: alias name + alias equivalent User-named aliases
Set and named by the user (both are case-sensitive) Manipulate by: as or aS (Set Alias), ad (Delete Alias), al (List Aliases)

2)

Fixed-name aliases
Set by the user, named $u0, $u1, .. $u9 Set by the r (register) command + . (dot) before the u
Example: r $.u0 = dd esp+8; g

3)

Automatic aliases
Set and named by the debugger Are similar to automatic pseudo registers, except that they can be used with alias-related tokens such as ${ .. } (pseudo-registers cannot) Examples: $ntsym, $CurrentDumpFile, $CurrentDumpPath, ...

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User-Named and Fixed-Name Aliases

1)

User-named aliases
By default a user-named alias must be separated from other characters. The first and last character of an alias name must either:
begin/end the line or be preceded/followed by a space, semicolon, or quotation mark

If a user-named alias is touching other text, it must be enclosed in ${ } (Alias interpreter) Can be used in the definition of a fixed-name alias
To use a user-named alias in the definition of another user-named alias, you need to prefix the as or aS command with a semicolon (else no alias replacement will occur on that line). Explanation: Any text entered into a line that begins with as, aS, ad, or al will not receive alias replacement. If you need aliases replaced in a line that begins with these characters, prefix it with a semicolon.

Are easier to use than fixed-name aliases

Their definition syntax is simpler they can be listed using the al (List Aliases) command

2)

Fixed-named aliases
Are automatically replaced if they are used adjacent to other text Can be used in the definition of any alias

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Commands for User-Named Aliases

Operator as Name Equivalent as /ma Name Address as /mu Name Address .. ad Name ad * al
${Alias}

Description
Set alias Set alias to the NULL-terminated ASCII string at Address Set alias to the NULL-terminated Unicode string at Address

Delete alias with Name Delete all aliases List user-named aliases ${Alias} is replaced by the alias equivalent, even if it is touching other text. If the alias is not defined, the ${Alias} is not replaced Same as above except that ${/f:Alias} is replaced with an empty string if the alias is not defined Evaluates to the alias name Evaluates: 1 = alias defined; 0 = alias not defined

${/f:Alias} ${/n:Alias} ${/d:Alias}

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Example - Aliases
0:001> as Short kernel32!CreateRemoteThread 0:001> uf Short 0:001> r $.u0 = kernel32!CreateRemoteThread 0:001> uf $u0 0:001> as DoInc r eax=eax+1; r ebx=ebx+1 0:001> DoInc 0:001> DoInc
// user-named alias

//

fixed-name alias

//

alias used as a macro for commands

// ------------------------------------------------------------------// aliases are replaced as soon as they are used // -------------------------------------------------------------------

0:001> r 0:001> r 0:001> r 0:001> ? Evaluate

$.u2 = 2 $.u1 = 1+$u2 $.u2 = 6 $u1 expression: 3 = 00000003

0:001> as two 2 0:001> r $.u1 = 1+ two // notice the empty space before two! 0:001> as two 6 0:001> ? $u1 Evaluate expression: 3 = 00000003
// ------------------------------------------------------------------// using a named alias within another named alias // -------------------------------------------------------------------

0:001> as two 2 0:001> as xy1 two + 1 0:001> ;as xy2 two + 1

// //

xy1 = two + 1 xy2 = 2 + 1 (you must prefix as with a semicolon for a replacement to occur)

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Debugger Command Programs

Consist of
debugger commands control flow tokens (.if, .for, .while, ..)

Variables
Use user-named aliases or fixed-name aliases as local variables Use pseudo-registers ($t0, ..) for numeric or typed variables

For comments use $$ [any text] A pair of braces {} is used to surround a block of statements
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Control Flow Tokens

Used to create execution loops and for conditional execution Each condition must be an expression (commands are not permitted)

Command .block .if, .else, .elseif .for, .while, .Break, .continue .foreach

Description
Performs no action. It is used solely to introduce a block. Note that you cannot simply use {} to create a block. Like the if, else or else if keyword in C Like the for, while, break or continue keyword in C Parses the output of debugger commands, a string or a text file. It then takes each item it finds and uses it as the input to a specified list of debugger commands.

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Command Programs Execution

There are several possible ways to execute a program: Enter all statements into the debugger window as a single string (commands separated by semicolons) Store all statements into a script file and use $$>< to run the file.
$$>< (Run Script File): opens the specified file replaces all carriage returns with semicolons executes the resulting text as a single command block

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Example Debugger Command Program

$$ ------------------------------------------------------------------$$ From WinDbgs help: Debugger Command Program Examples $$ You will find the full explanation there. $$ -------------------------------------------------------------------

$$ Get module list LIST_ENTRY in $t0. r? $t0 = &@$peb->Ldr->InLoadOrderModuleList $$ Iterate over all modules in list. .for (r? $t1 = *(ntdll!_LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY**)@$t0; (@$t1 != 0) & (@$t1 != @$t0); r? $t1 = (ntdll!_LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY*)@$t1->InLoadOrderLinks.Flink) { $$ Get base address in $Base. as /x ${/v:$Base} @@c++(@$t1->DllBase) $$ Get full name into $Mod. as /msu ${/v:$Mod} @@c++(&@$t1->FullDllName) .block { .echo ${$Mod} at ${$Base} } ad ${/v:$Base} ad ${/v:$Mod} }

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Useful Breakpoint Commands

Command bl bp bu ba bc be, bd Description Breakpoint list Set Breakpoint Set Unresolved Breakpoint: defers the actual setting of the breakpoint until the module is loaded Break on Access Breakpoint Clear Breakpoint Enable, Disable

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Example Setting Simple Breakpoints

0:000> 0:000> 0:000> 0:000> 0:000> bu bu bu ba ba kernel32!LoadLibraryExW kernel32!CreateProcessW kernel32!CreateThread r4 0012fe34 w2 0012fe38

break on access (read or write); monitor 4 bytes break on access (write); monitor 2 bytes

0:000> bl 0 e 7c801af1 1 e 7c802332 2 e 7c810637 3 e 0012fe34 r 4 4 e 0012fe38 2 2

0001 0001 0001 0001 0001

(0001) (0001) (0001) (0001) (0001)

0:**** kernel32!LoadLibraryExW 0:**** kernel32!CreateProcessW 0:**** kernel32!CreateThread 0:**** 0:****

0:000> bd 0,2 0:000> bc 4 0:000> bl 0 d 7c801af1 1 e 7c802332 2 d 7c810637 3 e 0012fe38 r 4

disable breakpoints 0 and 2 clear breakpoint 4

0001 0001 0001 0001

(0001) (0001) (0001) (0001)

0:**** kernel32!LoadLibraryExW 0:**** kernel32!CreateProcessW 0:**** kernel32!CreateThread 0:****

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Example More Complex Breakpoints

Break at specified source code line
0:000> bp `mod!source.c:12`

Breakpoint that will starts hitting after 5 passes

0:000> bu kernel32!LoadLibraryExW 5 0:001> bl // after 3 passes (0002=remaining count) 0 e 7c801af1 0002 (0005) 0:**** kernel32!LoadLibraryExW

Break only if called from thread ~1

0:000> ~1 bu kernel32!LoadLibraryExW 0:001> bl 0 e 7c801af1 0001 (0001) 0:~001 kernel32!LoadLibraryExW

Break at all symbols with pattern myFunc*

0:000> bp mod!myFunc*

SymbolPattern is equivalent to using x SymbolPattern

Break on member methods

0:000> bp @@c++( MyClass::MyMethod )

Useful if the same method is overloaded and thus present on several addresses

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Example Breakpoints With Commands

Skip execution of WinMain
0:000> bu MyApp!WinMain "r eip = poi(@esp); r esp = @esp + 0x14; .echo WinSpy!WinMain entered; gc"

Right at a functions entry point the value found on the top of the stack contains the return address r eip = poi(@esp) Set EIP (instruction pointer) to the value found at offset 0x0

WinMain has 4x4 byte parameters = 0x10 bytes + 4 bytes for the return address = 0x14 r esp = @esp + 0x14 Add 0x14 to ESP, effectively unwinding the stack pointer

Break only if LoadLibrary is called for MyDLL

0:000> bu kernel32!LoadLibraryExW ";as /mu ${/v:MyAlias} poi(@esp+4); .if ( $spat( \"${MyAlias}\", \"*MYDLL*\" ) != 0 ) { kn; } .else { gc }"

The first parameter to LoadLibrary (at address ESP + 4) is a string pointer to the DLL name in question. The MASM $spat operator will compare this pointer to a predefined string-wildcard, this is *MYDLL* in our example. Unfortunately $spat can accept aliases or constants, but no memory pointers. This is why we store our pointer in question to an alias (MyAlias) first. Our kernel32!LoadLibraryExW breakpoint will hit only if the pattern compared by $spat matches. Otherwise the application will continue executing.

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Exception Analysis Commands

Description first-change or second-chance? Displays detailed information about the current exception Display most recent exception Display exception at Addr Display c++ exception at address 7c901230 Go with Exception Handled Go with Exception Not Handled

Command .lastevent !analyze -v .exr -1 .exr Addr !cppexr g, gH gN

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Example - Exceptions
0:000> .lastevent Last event: dac.154c: Stack overflow - code c00000fd (first chance) debugger time: Wed Aug 29 16:04:15.367 2007 (GMT+2)

0:000> .exr -1 ExceptionAddress: 00413fb7 (TestApp!_chkstk+0x00000027) ExceptionCode: c00000fd (Stack overflow) ExceptionFlags: 00000000 NumberParameters: 2 Parameter[0]: 00000000 Parameter[1]: 001e2000 0:000> !analyze v FAULTING_IP: TestApp!_chkstk+27 [F:\SP\vctools\crt_bld\SELF_X86\crt\src\intel\chkstk.asm @ 99] 00413fb7 8500 test dword ptr [eax],eax ...

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Remote Debugging with WinDbg

Target computer (server) Copy dbgsrv.exe, dbgeng.dll and dbghelp.dll to the remote computer Disable the firewall for "dbgsrv.exe Run dbgsrv.exe -t tcp:port=1025
Windows Vista: Start dbgsrv.exe with admin privileges to see all processes.

Host computer (client) Run WinDbg.exe -premote tcp:server=TargetIP_or_Name,port=1025 Select Process on Target Computer File (Menu) Attach to Process that you would like to debug

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WinDbg Commands for Remote Debugging

Command Cdb.exe QR server(IP or Name) .detach .endpsrv .tlist

Description Lists all debugging servers running on the specified network server. Detach from Process End dbgsrv.exe on remote computer. This command will kill the debugged process if you dont detach first. lists all processes running on the (remote) system

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Monitoring Events
The debugger engine provides facilities for monitoring and responding to events in the target application Events are generally divided into: Exception events
Breakpoint, Access Violation, Stack Overflow, division-by-zero, etc. For a full list see: Specific Exceptions.

Non-exception events
Create Process, Create Thread, Load Module, Unload Module. For a full list see DEBUG_FILTER_XXX.

Whenever a debugging session is accessible, there is a last event

Command: .lastevent
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Events Filters in WinDbg

Provide simple event filtering Influence how the debugger engine proceeds after an event occurs in a target To list all events: sx Break or execution status: Influences whether the debugger will break into the target
First-chance break on event (sxe) Second-chance break event (sxd) Debugger message output on event (sxn) Ignore event (sxi)

Handling or Continue status: Determines whether an exception event should be considered handled (gH) or not-handled (gN) in the target

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Events Filters Dialog

Execution:
Enabled Disabled Output Ignore - first-chance break (sxe) - second-chance break (sxd) - message output on event (sxn) - ignore event (sxi)

Continue:
Handled - Consider event handled when execution resumes

Not-Handled - Consider event not-handled when execution resumes

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Event Arguments
Some filters take arguments that restrict which events they match No arguments No restriction

Event
Create Process Exit Process Load Module Target Output Unload Module

Match criteria
The name of the created process must match the argument. The name of the exited process must match the argument. The name of the loaded module must match the argument. The debug output from the target must match the argument. The base address of the unloaded module must be the same as the argument.
String wildcard syntax

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Table of Contents - Roadmap

Behind the Scenes Using WinDbg Global Flags

Application Verifier Process Dumps

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Flags? GFlags? Global Flags!

GFlags enables and disables features by editing the Windows registry GFlags can set system-wide or image-specific settings Image specific settings are stored in:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\ImageFileName\GlobalFlag

The OS reads these settings and adopts its functionality accordingly GFlags can be run from the command line or by using a dialog box We can also use !gflags in WinDbg to set or display the global flags With GFlags we can enable:
heap checking heap tagging Loader snaps Debugger for an Image (automatically attached each time an Image is started) Application verifier Etc.

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GFlags Dialog

System Registry: System-wide settings that affect all processes running on Windows. They remain effective until you change them. Restart Windows to make the changes effective. Kernel Flags: Run-time settings that affect the entire system. They take effect immediately without rebooting, but they are lost if you shut down or restart the system. Image File: They affect instances of the specified program that start after the command completes. They are saved in the registry and remain effective until you change them.

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GFlags: Show loader snaps Enabled

WinDbg Output: LDR: LdrLoadDll, loading samlib.dll from C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS\system;C:\WINDOWS;.;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\system32\kktools LDR: Loading (DYNAMIC, NON_REDIRECTED) C:\WINDOWS\system32\samlib.dll ModLoad: 71bf0000 71c03000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\samlib.dll LDR: samlib.dll bound to ntdll.dll LDR: samlib.dll has correct binding to ntdll.dll LDR: samlib.dll bound to ADVAPI32.dll LDR: samlib.dll has correct binding to ADVAPI32.dll LDR: samlib.dll bound to RPCRT4.dll LDR: samlib.dll has correct binding to RPCRT4.dll LDR: samlib.dll bound to KERNEL32.dll LDR: samlib.dll has stale binding to KERNEL32.dll LDR: samlib.dll bound to ntdll.dll via forwarder(s) from kernel32.dll LDR: samlib.dll has correct binding to ntdll.dll LDR: Stale Bind KERNEL32.dll from samlib.dll LDR: LdrGetProcedureAddress by NAME - RtlAllocateHeap LDR: LdrGetProcedureAddress by NAME - RtlFreeHeap LDR: LdrGetProcedureAddress by NAME - RtlGetLastWin32Error LDR: LdrGetProcedureAddress by NAME - RtlReAllocateHeap LDR: samlib.dll bound to USER32.dll LDR: samlib.dll has stale binding to USER32.dll LDR: Stale Bind USER32.dll from samlib.dll [d58,690] LDR: Real INIT LIST for process C:\Development\Sources\TestApp\Release\TestApp.exe pid 3416 0xd58 [d58,690] C:\WINDOWS\system32\samlib.dll init routine 003A0F30 [d58,690] LDR: samlib.dll loaded - Calling init routine at 003A0F30

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Table of Contents - Roadmap

Behind the Scenes Using WinDbg Global Flags Application Verifier

Process Dumps

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Get Even More: Enable Application Verifier

Application Verifier:
is a runtime verification tool for Windows applications is monitoring an application's interaction with the OS profiles and tracks:
Microsoft Win32 APIs (heap, handles, locks, threads, DLL load/unload, and more) Exceptions Kernel objects Registry File system

with !avrf we get access to this tracking information

Note: Under the hood Application Verifier injects a number of DLLs (verifier.dll, vrfcore.dll, vfbasics.dll, vfcompat.dll, and more) into the target application. More precisely: It sets a registry key according to the selected tests for the image in question. The windows loader reads this registry key and loads the specified DLLs into the applications address space while starting it.

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Application Verifier Variants

GFlags Application Verifier
Only verifier.dll is injected into the target process verifier.dll is installed with Windows XP Offers a very limited subset of Application Verifier options Probably this option in GFlags is obsolete and will eventually be removed (?)

Application Verifier
Can freely be downloaded and installed from the MS website Additionally installs vrfcore.dll, vfbasics.dll, vfcompat.dll, and more into Windows\System32 Enables much more test options and full functionality of the !avrf extension
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Application Verifier Symbols

Application Verifier is installed with PDBs with full symbol information

Note the source information included in the disassembly These are the only modules from Microsoft that Ive seen delivered with full symbol information In fact, WinDbg must use these symbols rather than the public ones from the server. Otherwise the !avrf extension will not work
.reload /f @"C:\Windows\System32\verifier.pdb

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Common !avrf Parameters

Command !avrf Description Displays current Application Verifier options. If an Application Verifier Stop has occurred, reveal the nature of the stop and what caused it. !avrf -cs !avrf -hp 5 !avrf -dlls !avrf -ex !avrf -cnt !avrf -threads Displays the critical section delete* log.
* DeleteCriticalSection API. ~CCriticalSection calls this implicitly.

Displays the heap operation log (last 5 entries).

* HeapAlloc, HeapFree, new, delete

Displays the DLL load/unload log. Displays the exception log. Displays a list of global counters (WaitForSingleObject calls, CreateEvent calls, HeapAllocation calls, ..). Displays information about threads in the target process. For child threads, the stack size and the CreateThread flags specified by the parent are displayed as well. Displays a log of all terminated* and suspended threads.
* TerminateThread API

!avrf -trm

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Example !avrf
// Right after our application executes: // HeapAlloc( 0x00140000, 8, dwBytes =0x00A00000 ) -->> 0x033D1000; 0:000> !avrf -hp 1 Verifier package version >= 3.00 Dumping last 1 entries from tracker @ 01690fd8 with 1291 valid entries ... -------------------------------------------------------------HeapAlloc: 33D1000 A00000 0 0 004019cf: TestApp!CMyDialog::OnBnClicked_HeapAlloc+0x4F 0041a0c1: TestApp!_AfxDispatchCmdMsg+0x3D 0041a2a6: TestApp!CCmdTarget::OnCmdMsg+0x10A 0041a76c: TestApp!CDialog::OnCmdMsg+0x1B 0041d05c: TestApp!CWnd::OnCommand+0x51 0041d92b: TestApp!CWnd::OnWndMsg+0x2F 0041b2eb: TestApp!CWnd::WindowProc+0x22 0:000> !avrf -threads =================================================== Thread ID = 0xDE4 Parent thread ID = 0xE3C Start address = 0x004a7d82: TestApp!ILT+11645(?ThreadProcYGKPAXZ) Parameter = 0x0061833c =================================================== Thread ID = 0xE3C Initial thread =================================================== Number of threads displayed: 0x2

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Table of Contents - Roadmap

Behind the Scenes Using WinDbg Global Flags Application Verifier Process Dumps

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Process Dumps
A Processs dump
is quite similar to a non-invasive attach represents a snapshot of a process at a given time varies in size, depending on what contents and information it includes

With a dump
we can examine memory as well as other internal structures of a process we cannot set breakpoints or step through the program execution

Dump a dump
we can always "shrink" a dump with more information to a dump with less information use the .dump command as you would with a live process

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Types of Dumps
1) Kernel-mode dumps
Variants: Complete Memory Dump, Kernel Memory Dump, Small Memory Dump

2) Full User-mode dumps

Generated by WinDbg with ".dump /f or by Dr. Watson on Windows 2000 Includes the entire memory space of a process, the program's executable image itself, the handle table Widely used in the past, MS is slowly dropping support for it

3) Minidumps
.dump /m?? The modern dump format Fine-grained control about what is included in the dump (see MSDN: MINIDUMP_TYPE) Despite their names, the largest minidump file actually contains more information than a full usermode dump. For example, .dump /mf or .dump /ma creates a larger and more complete file than .dump /f

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Determine Type of a Dump

You can load the dump in question into WinDbg. WinDbg will call a minidump a "User Mini Dump File," and the old style crash dump will be called a "User Dump File." 106
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Example .dump Command

0:000> .dump /ma d:\large.dmp Creating d:\large.dmp - mini user dump Dump successfully written 0:000> .dump /m d:\small.dmp Creating d:\small.dmp - mini user dump Dump successfully written all possible data: full memory, code sections, PEB and TEBs, handle data, thread time information, unloaded module lists, and more

only basic information: module information (signatures), thread and stack information

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Choosing the Best Tool

Scenario / Options Application crash (postmortem debugging) Application "hang" (stops responding but does not actually crash) Application encounters an exception Application is running normally Application that fails during startup (i.e. missing DLL dependency) Shrinking an existing dump file Dump all running applications with the same image name at once Control what information is included in the dump file ADPlus Dr. Watson Yes CDB and WinDbg Yes UserDump Yes Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes No No No No No

Yes No No No No No1

Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes

Yes Yes Yes No Yes No2

1: Always creates a small Minidump --MiniDumpNormal -- with basic information only. It is usually less than 20KB in size. 2: Always creates a Minidump with Full Memory information. It is usually 20-200MB in size.

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Your Homework
Read WinDbgs documentation
Memory leaks, handles, deadlocks, breakpoints with conditions, and more. Everything is explained there.

Learn assembly
It will greatly improve your debugging skills Besides WinDbg assembly will be your best friend when it comes to debugging situations

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Questions? Suggestions?

??
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You have a question about WinDbg? You are interested in a WinDbg lab or seminar? You think that something in WinDbg. From A to Z! could be improved? Or you would just like to say WOW, this presentation was really useful? Feel free to drop a line at: mailrkuster@windbg.info
The actual email address does not contain the word mail spam prevention.

References
WinDbgs Documentation, MSDN Common WinDbg Commands (Thematically Grouped)
http://software.rkuster.com/windbg/printcmd.htm

Matching Debug Information

http://www.debuginfo.com/articles/debuginfomatch.html

Generating Debug Information with Visual C++

http://www.debuginfo.com/articles/gendebuginfo.html

Microsoft Windows Internals, Fourth Edition

M.E. Russinovich, D.A. Solomon, ISBN 0-7356-1917-4

Advanced Kernel Debugging

Andre Vachon, PowerPoint, WinHec 2004

Application Verifiers Documentation

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