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About the Book

The full transcript of the Software Diagnostics Services training course with 16 step-by-step exercises, notes, and selected questions and answers. Learn how to navigate through memory dump space and Windows data structures to diagnose, troubleshoot, and debug complex software incidents. The training uses a unique and innovative pattern-oriented analysis approach to speed up the learning curve. It consists of practical step-by-step exercises using WinDbg to diagnose structural and behavioral patterns in the 64-bit kernel and complete (physical) memory dumps. Additional topics include memory search, kernel linked list navigation, practical WinDbg scripting, registry, system variables and objects, device drivers, and I/O. Prerequisites are basic and intermediate level Windows memory dump analysis: the ability to list processors, processes, threads, modules, apply symbols, walk through stack traces and raw stack data, diagnose patterns such as heap corruption, CPU spike, memory leaks, access violation, wait chains and deadlocks. If you don't feel comfortable with prerequisites, then the Accelerated Windows Memory Dump Analysis training book is recommended before purchasing and reading this book course. Audience: Software technical support and escalation engineers, system administrators, security researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts, software developers, and quality assurance engineers. The fifth edition uses the latest WinDbg, includes the relevant Unified Modeling Language tutorial, revised and extended existing exercises, and added the exercise that demonstrates the use of a Generative AI LLM assistant.

About the Author

Dmitry Vostokov

@DumpAnalysis

Dmitry Vostokov is an internationally recognized expert, speaker, educator, scientist, inventor, and author. He founded the pattern-oriented software diagnostics, forensics, and prognostics discipline (Systematic Software Diagnostics) and Software Diagnostics Institute. Vostokov has also authored over 50 books on software diagnostics, anomaly detection and analysis, software and memory forensics, root cause analysis and problem solving, memory dump analysis, debugging, software trace and log analysis, reverse engineering, and malware analysis. He has over 30 years of experience in software architecture, design, development, and maintenance in various industries, including leadership, technical, and people management roles. Dmitry founded OpenTask Iterative and Incremental Publishing and Software Diagnostics Technology and Services (former Memory Dump Analysis Services). In his spare time, he explores Software Narratology and Quantum Software Diagnostics. His interest areas are theoretical software diagnostics and its mathematical and computer science foundations, application of formal logic, semiotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining to diagnostics and anomaly detection, software diagnostics engineering and diagnostics-driven development, diagnostics workflow and interaction. Recent interest areas also include functional programming, cloud native computing, monitoring, observability, visualization, security, automation, applications of category theory to software diagnostics, development and big data, and diagnostics of artificial intelligence.