Tuesday, August 08, 2006

How to write parts of the process memory to a file

In order to write parts of the process memory to a file use the .writemem command.
Syntax is .writemem FileName Address Range

Example:
You want to dump a huge BSTR into a file:
Address of the BSTR: 0x0d900024

Get the size (The DWORD receedig the actual string contains the size):
0:000> dc 0x0d900024 - 4
0d900020 005f7a1c ...


.writemem c:\temp\string_content.txt 0x0d900024 L?005f7a1c

Please note the "?" in the size parameter to avoid build in size checks.

Be aware of using the /b option with .dump!

When using /b with .dump in order to generate a cab file you will get the message:

"Creating a cab file can take a VERY VERY long time"
- and this is VERY VERY (!) true.

".Ctrl-C can only interrupt the command after a file has been added to the cab."
- so all you can do is wait and have one cup of coffe after the other :-(

Friday, August 04, 2006

Scan the stack for strings

It is very easy to find stirngs on the stack of life debugging session or in a crash dump.
Simply set the context you are interested in with ~x s (replace x with the thread you are interested in) or set the excption context with .cxr 'address' or .ecxr (dump contains an excpetion record).

Then type:
0:000> da @ebp

You will likely get lots of trash, like this:
0012bf30 "X.."

then type
0:000> da
0012bf34 ".a.w..."

typing 'enter' repeats the last command, so we will walk down the stack by pressig 'enter'
0:000>
0012bf3c "8"
[...]

0:000>
0012c478 "Runtime Error!..Program: ...X.exe"
0012c4b8 "........................................This app"
0012c4d8 "lication has requested the Runti"
0012c4f8 "me to terminate it in an unusual"
0012c518 " way..Please contact the applica"
0012c538 "tion's support team for more inf"
0012c558 "ormation..."


This of course does not not work with strings on the heap.
Simply use 'dda' (or 'ddu' for unicode) to list those.