Crash Dump Analysis

Sponsored link: Memory Dump Analysis Services

Debugging Experts Magazine Online

This small case study continues where Not using checklists common mistake case study left, after identifying the blocked LPC thread in ServiceA process. We know that ServiceA always asks (coupled with) ServiceB and, indeed, when looking at the latter stack trace collection we see a GUI thread showing a dialog box:

0:000> ~13kc

ntdll!KiFastSystemCallRet
USER32!NtUserWaitMessage
USER32!InternalDialogBox
USER32!DialogBoxIndirectParamAorW
USER32!DialogBoxIndirectParamW
comdlg32!NewGetFileName
comdlg32!NewGetSaveFileName
comdlg32!GetFileName
comdlg32!GetSaveFileNameW
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
DllA!DllEntryPoint
ServiceB!Initialize
[…]
ServiceB!ServiceThread
kernel32!BaseThreadStart

From function names we can infer that the thread was displaying a “Save File As” common dialog box but the service was not allowed to interact with a desktop. This made the service blocked and, in return, made ServiceA blocked too. The suggestion was to enable ServiceB to interact with the desktop and keep an eye on DllA.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

           

Museum of Debugging and Memory Dumps

7/7/2010 - 8/8/2010 Annual Competition: Tell Your Windows Debugging Story

Crash and Hang Analysis Audit Service

CARE: Crash Analysis Report Environment

Crash Dump and Software Trace Analysis Training and Seminars

Access OpenTask Titles on Safari Books Online

DATA (Dump Analysis + Trace Analysis) Facebook group
Please join the community of memory (dump) and trace analysis engineers. This group promotes scientific methods and memory dump-based worldview.

Twitter @ DumpAnalysis
You can now follow portal and blog news at DumpAnalysis on Twitter

LinkedIn Group Dr. Watson Enthusiasts
All about Dr. Watson errors and more. Get news, excerpts and progress reports about the forthcoming book The Science of Dr. Watson: An Illustrated History of Debugging (ISBN 978-1906717070)

2010 (0x7DA) - The Year of Dump Analysis
2011 (0x7DB) - 2020 (0x7E4) The Debugging Decade

International Memory Analysts and Debuggers Day:
07.07 and/or 08.08 starting from The Year of Dump Analysis, 2010, 7DA

Announcements

Coming Soon:

Management Bits: An Anthology from Reductionist Manager

Crash Dump Analysis: Practical Foundations (Windows Edition, Systematic Software Fault Analysis Series)

Debugging Notebook: Essential Concepts, WinDbg Commands and Tools

Crash Dump Analysis for System Administrators and Support Engineers

New Magazines:

Debugged! MZ/PE: MagaZine for/from Practicing Engineers

New Books:

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology: Color Supplement for Volumes 1-3

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 3

First Fault Software Problem Solving: A Guide for Engineers, Managers and Users

x64 Windows Debugging: Practical Foundations

Also available:

Windows Debugging: Practical Foundations

DLL List Landscape: The Art from Computer Memory Space

Dumps, Bugs and Debugging Forensics: The Adventures of Dr. Debugalov

WinDbg: A Reference Poster and Learning Cards

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2

Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1

New Children's Book:

Baby Turing

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Crash Dump Analysis, Crash Dump Patterns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.