Software Diagnostics Library

An alternative to converting memory dumps to picture files is to save a memory range to a binary file and then convert it to a BMP file. Thus you can view the particular DLL or driver mapped into address space, heap or pool region, etc.

To save a memory range to a file use WinDbg .writemem command:

.writemem d2p-range.bin 00800000 0085e000

or

.writemem d2p-range.bin 00400000 L20000

I wrote a WinDbg script that saves a specified memory range and then calls a shell script which automatically converts saved binary file to a BMP file and then runs whatever picture viewer is registered for .bmp extension.

The WinDbg script code (mempicture.txt):

.writemem d2p-range.bin ${$arg1} ${$arg2}
.if (${/d:$arg3})
{
  .shell -i- mempicture.cmd d2p-range ${$arg3}
}
.else
{
  .shell -i- mempicture.cmd d2p-range
}

The shell script (mempicture.cmd):

dump2picture %1.bin %1.bmp %2
%1.bmp

Because WinDbg installation folder is assumed to be the default directory for both scripts and Dump2Picture.exe they should be copied to the same folder where windbg.exe is located. On my system it is

C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows

Both scripts are now included in Dump2Picture package available for free download:

Dump2Picture package

To call the script from WinDbg use the following command:

$$>a< mempicture.txt Range [bits-per-pixel]

where Range can be in Address1 Address2 or Address Lxxx format, bits-per-pixel can be 8, 16, 24 or 32. By default it is 32.

For example, I loaded a complete Windows x64 memory dump and visualized HAL (hardware abstraction layer) module:

kd> lm
start             end                 module name
fffff800`00800000 fffff800`0085e000   hal
fffff800`01000000 fffff800`0147b000   nt
fffff97f`ff000000 fffff97f`ff45d000   win32k
...
...
...

kd> $$>a< mempicture.txt fffff800`00800000 fffff800`0085e000
Writing 5e001 bytes...

C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows>dump2picture d2p-range.bin d2p-range.bmp

Dump2Picture version 1.1
Written by Dmitry Vostokov, 2007

d2p-range.bmp
d2p-range.bin
        1 file(s) copied.

C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows>d2p-range.bmp
<.shell waiting 10 second(s) for process>
.shell: Process exited
kd>

and Windows Picture and Fax Viewer application was launched and displayed the following picture:

Enjoy

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Crash Dump Analysis, Debugging, Memory Visualization, Tools, WinDbg Scripts, WinDbg Tips and Tricks. 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.