Software Diagnostics Library

Sometimes we suspect that a problem was caused by some module but WinDbg lmv command doesn’t show the company name and other verbose information for it and Google search has no results for the file name. I call this pattern Unknown Component.

In such cases additional information can be obtained by dumping the module resource section or the whole module address range and looking for ASCII and UNICODE strings. For example (byte values in db output are omitted for clarity):

2: kd> lmv m driver
start    end        module name
f5022000 f503e400   driver   (deferred)
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\driver.sys
    Image name: driver.sys
    Timestamp:        Tue Jun 12 11:33:16 2007 (466E766C)
    CheckSum:         00021A2C
    ImageSize:        0001C400
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e0 0409.04b0 0409.04e0

2: kd> db f5022000 f503e400
f5022000  MZ..............
f5022010  ........@.......
f5022020  ................
f5022030  ................
f5022040  ........!..L.!Th
f5022050  is program canno
f5022060  t be run in DOS
f5022070  mode....$.......
f5022080  .g,._.B._.B._.B.
f5022090  _.C.=.B..%Q.X.B.
f50220a0  _.B.].B.Y%H.|.B.
f50220b0  ..D.^.B.Rich_.B.
f50220c0  ........PE..L...
f50220d0  lvnF............
...
...
...
f503ce30  ................
f503ce40  ................
f503ce50  ................
f503ce60  ............0...
f503ce70  ................
f503ce80  ....H...........
f503ce90  ..........4...V.
f503cea0  S._.V.E.R.S.I.O.
f503ceb0  N._.I.N.F.O.....
f503cec0  ................
f503ced0  ........?.......
f503cee0  ................
f503cef0  ....P.....S.t.r.
f503cf00  i.n.g.F.i.l.e.I.
f503cf10  n.f.o...,.....0.
f503cf20  4.0.9.0.4.b.0...
f503cf30  4.....C.o.m.p.a.
f503cf40  n.y.N.a.m.e.....
f503cf50  M.y.C.o.m.p. .A.
f503cf60  G...p.$...F.i.l.
f503cf70  e.D.e.s.c.r.i.p.
f503cf80  t.i.o.n.....M.y.
f503cf90  .B.i.g. .P.r.o.
f503cfa0  d.u.c.t. .H.o.o.
f503cfb0  k...............
f503cfc0  ................
f503cfd0  ....4.....F.i.l.
f503cfe0  e.V.e.r.s.i.o.n.
f503cff0  ....5...1...0...
f503d000  ????????????????
f503d010  ????????????????
f503d020  ????????????????
f503d030  ????????????????
...
...
...

We see that CompanyName is MyComp AG, FileDescription is My Big Product Hook and FileVersion is 5.0.1.

In our example the same information can be retrieved by dumping the image file header and then finding and dumping the resource section:

2: kd> lmv m driver
start    end        module name
f5022000 f503e400   driver   (deferred)
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\driver.sys
    Image name: driver.sys
    Timestamp:        Tue Jun 12 11:33:16 2007 (466E766C)
    CheckSum:         00021A2C
    ImageSize:        0001C400
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e0 0409.04b0 0409.04e0

2: kd> !dh f5022000 -f

File Type: EXECUTABLE IMAGE
FILE HEADER VALUES
     14C machine (i386)
       6 number of sections
466E766C time date stamp Tue Jun 12 11:33:16 2007

       0 file pointer to symbol table
       0 number of symbols
      E0 size of optional header
     10E characteristics
            Executable
            Line numbers stripped
            Symbols stripped
            32 bit word machine

OPTIONAL HEADER VALUES
     10B magic #
    6.00 linker version
   190A0 size of code
    30A0 size of initialized data
       0 size of uninitialized data
   1A340 address of entry point
     2C0 base of code
         ----- new -----
00010000 image base
      20 section alignment
      20 file alignment
       1 subsystem (Native)
    4.00 operating system version
    0.00 image version
    4.00 subsystem version
   1C400 size of image
     2C0 size of headers
   21A2C checksum
00100000 size of stack reserve
00001000 size of stack commit
00100000 size of heap reserve
00001000 size of heap commit
       0 [       0] address [size] of Export Directory
   1A580 [      50] address [size] of Import Directory
   1AE40 [     348] address [size] of Resource Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Exception Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Security Directory
   1B1A0 [    1084] address [size] of Base Relocation Directory
     420 [      1C] address [size] of Debug Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Description Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Special Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Thread Storage Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Load Configuration Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Bound Import Directory
     2C0 [     15C] address [size] of Import Address Table Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Delay Import Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of COR20 Header Directory
       0 [       0] address [size] of Reserved Directory

2: kd> db f5022000+1AE40 f5022000+1AE40+348
f503ce40  ................
f503ce50  ................
f503ce60  ............0...
f503ce70  ................
f503ce80  ....H...........
f503ce90  ..........4...V.
f503cea0  S._.V.E.R.S.I.O.
f503ceb0  N._.I.N.F.O.....
f503cec0  ................
f503ced0  ........?.......
f503cee0  ................
f503cef0  ....P.....S.t.r.
f503cf00  i.n.g.F.i.l.e.I.
f503cf10  n.f.o...,.....0.
f503cf20  4.0.9.0.4.b.0...
f503cf30  4.....C.o.m.p.a.
f503cf40  n.y.N.a.m.e.....
f503cf50  M.y.C.o.m.p. .A.
f503cf60  G...p.$...F.i.l.
f503cf70  e.D.e.s.c.r.i.p.
f503cf80  t.i.o.n.....M.y.
f503cf90  .B.i.g. .P.r.o.
f503cfa0  d.u.c.t. .H.o.o.
f503cfb0  k...............
f503cfc0  ................
f503cfd0  ....4.....F.i.l.
f503cfe0  e.V.e.r.s.i.o.n.
f503cff0  ....5...1...0...
f503d000  ????????????????
f503d010  ????????????????
...
...
...

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org -

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Crash Dump Analysis, Crash Dump Patterns, 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.