Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 3, Revised Edition
Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 3, Revised Edition
About the Book
This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized articles from Software Diagnostics Institute and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog) written in October 2008 - June 2009. In addition to various corrections, this major revision updates relevant links and removes obsolete references. Some articles are preserved for historical reasons. Most of the content, especially memory analysis and trace and log analysis pattern languages, is still relevant today and for the foreseeable future. The output of WinDbg commands is also remastered to include color highlighting. Crash dump analysis pattern names are also corrected to reflect the continued expansion of the catalog.
Compared to the second revised volume, the third revised volume features:
- 15 new crash dump analysis patterns
- 29 new pattern interaction case studies
- Trace analysis patterns
- Fully cross-referenced with Volume 1 and Volume 2
- New appendixes
The primary audience for Memory Dump Analysis Anthology reference volumes is: software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows platforms, technical support, escalation, and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, quality assurance engineers testing software on Windows platforms, security and vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts. Trace and log analysis articles may be of interest to users of other platforms.
About the Author
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Table of Contents
Preface 17
Acknowledgments 19
About the Author 20
PART 1: Professional Crash Dump Analysis 21
Sparse Complete x64 Memory Dumps 21
Common Mistakes 24
Not Looking at All Stack Traces 24
Dump Analysis on Windows 7 28
32-bit Stack Traces from x64 Complete Memory Dumps 43
Debugger Log Reading Technique 48
Variable Kernel Stack in Vista and W2K8 49
Advanced Local Procedure Call WinDbg Extension 52
!cs vs. !ntsdexts.locks 54
Copyright as Timestamp 55
NULL Data Pointer Pattern: Case Study 56
Looking for Abnormal: Case Study 60
Raw Stack Dump of All Threads 62
Comparative Memory Dump Analysis: CPU Spikes 63
Graphical Notation for Memory Dumps 68
Exception Addresses from Event Logs 71
The Importance of Symbols 72
Platformorphism 75
PART 2: Crash Dump Analysis Patterns 77
Data Alignment (Page Boundary) 77
Multiple Exceptions (Kernel Mode) 78
C++ Exception 84
Deadlock (Mixed Objects, Kernel Space) 85
Wait Chain (Thread Objects) 92
Divide by Zero (User Mode) 96
Wait Chain (LPC/ALPC) 97
Insufficient Memory (Physical Memory) 104
Swarm of Shared Locks 107
Process Factory 112
Paged Out Data 118
Semantic Split 120
Pass-Through Function 129
NULL Pointer (Data) 131
JIT Code (.NET) 132
PART 3: Crash Dump Analysis AntiPatterns 137
No Question 137
Missing Space 138
PART 4: Pattern Interaction 141
Early Crash Dump, Blocked Thread, Not My Version, and Lost Opportunity 141
Lateral Damage, Stack Overflow, and Execution Residue 144
Truncated Dump, Spiking Thread, Not My Version, and Hooked Functions 149
Stack Trace Collection, Hidden Exception, and NULL Code Pointer 155
WOW64, Blocked Threads, and Coupled Processes 160
Invalid Handle, Stack Trace Collection, Multiple Exceptions, Invalid Pointer, Data Alignment on Page Boundary, Dynamic Memory Corruption, and Not My Version 163
Wait Chain and Spiking Thread 167
Blocked GUI Thread, Wait Chain, and Virtualized Process 170
Insufficient Memory, Handle Leak, Wait Chain, Deadlock, Inconsistent Dump, and Overaged System 175
Memory Leak, Spiking Threads, Wait Chain, High Critical Section Contention, and Module Variety 181
NULL Code Pointer, Changed Environment, Hooked Functions, and Execution Residue 196
Swarm of Shared Locks, Blocked Threads, and Waiting Time 201
Stack Trace Collection, Blocked Thread, and Coupled Processes 205
Insufficient Memory, Handle Leak, Process Factory, High Contention, and Busy System 209
Busy System, Blocked Threads, Wait Chains, and Deadlock 215
Manual Dump, Dynamic Memory Corruption, Blocked Threads, Stack Trace Collection, Multiple Exceptions, Wait Chains and Deadlock 224
Coupled Processes, Wait chains, Message Box, Waiting Thread Time, Paged Out Data, Incorrect Stack Trace, Hidden Exception, Unknown Component, and Execution Residue 228
Manual Dump, Wait Chain, Blocked Thread, Dynamic Memory Corruption, and Historical Information 236
Blocked Threads, Message Box, and Self-Diagnosis 240
Manual and Early Crash Dump, Stack Trace Collection, Main Thread, Blocked Threads, and Pass-Through Functions 241
Blocked Thread, Historical Information, Execution Residue, Hidden Exception, Dynamic Memory Corruption, Incorrect Stack Trace, and Not My Version 245
Null Data Pointer, Incorrect Stack Trace, Changed Environment, Hooked Functions, and Coincidental Symbolic Information 248
Heap Corruption, Module Variety, Execution Residue, Coincidental Symbolic Information, and Critical Section Corruption 255
Stack Trace Collection, Blocked Threads, Pass-Through Functions, and Main Thread 262
Stack Trace, Invalid Code Pointer, and Hooked Functions 264
Manual Dump, Virtualized Process, Stack Trace Collection, Multiple Exceptions, Optimized Code, Wild Code Pointer, Incorrect Stack Trace, and Hidden Exception 268
Main Blocked Thread, Missing Component, Execution Residue, and Data Contents Locality 275
Inconsistent Dump, Blocked Threads, Wait Chains, Incorrect Stack Trace, and Process Factory 279
Invalid Pointer, Incorrect Stack Trace, Multiple Exceptions, Insufficient Memory, and Memory Leak 288
PART 5: A Bit of Science and Philosophy 295
Universal Memory Dump: A Definition 295
The Source of Intuition about Infinite 296
Geometrical Debugging 297
Riemann Programming Language 299
Is Memory Dump Analysis a Science? 300
My Dangerous Idea: Parameterized Science 301
Unique Events and Historical Narratives 302
Notes on Memoidealism 303
A Copernican Revolution in Debugging 305
On Subjectivity of Software Defects 306
Memory Field Theories of Memuonics 307
Software Trace: A Mathematical Definition 308
Quantum Memory Dumps 309
Chemistry of Virtual Memory 310
PART 6: Fun with Crash Dumps 313
Music for Debugging 313
Bugs Never Disappear 313
Horrors of Computation 314
Passion, Intellect, and Expression 315
Headphones for Debugging 316
In the Memory Dump File 317
Bugteriology 318
Implausible Debugging Book Titles 319
Build Date Astrology 320
Breaking Technical Barrier 321
Occult Debugging 322
The Year of Dump Analysis! 323
Stack Traces and Poetry 324
Debugging Slang 326
Memory Dump Analysis Walks 327
E-Acheri 329
The Meaning of DATA 330
Irish Government on Dumps 331
Memory Dumps as Relics 332
The Ghost of Adelphi Training Center 333
PART 7: Software Troubleshooting 335
I’m RARE 335
To Bugcheck or Not To Bugcheck 336
T&D Labyrinth 337
Efficient vs. Effective: DATA View 339
PART 8: Software Trace Analysis 341
Tracing Best Practices 341
Software Narratology: A Definition 342
PART 9: Software Trace Analysis Patterns 343
Introduction 343
Periodic Error 344
Basic Facts 345
Circular Trace 346
Intra-Correlation 347
PART 10: The Origin of Crash Dumps 351
Hide, Seek, and Dump 351
OSMOSIS Memory Dumps 353
Tools 356
Crash2Hang 356
MTCrash 358
Where did the Crash Dump Come from? 363
FinalExceptionHandler 364
PART 11: Memory Visualization 367
The Art of Memory Corruption 367
Visualizing Secondary Storage 368
Pictures from Memory Space 369
PART 12: Miscellaneous 375
Hexadecimal/Decimal Chaos 375
The Measure of Debugging and Memory Dump Analysis Complexity 376
How To Simulate a Process Hang? 377
A Windows Case for Delta Debugging 378
Sentinel Pointers 380
Collapsed Stack Trace 381
Appendix A 383
Crash Dump File Examples 383
Appendix B 385
Crash Dump Analysis Checklist 385
Appendix C 389
Memory Dump Analysis Pattern: A Definition 389
Wait Chain Patterns 389
DLL Link Patterns 389
Insufficient Memory Patterns 390
Dynamic Memory Corruption Patterns 390
Deadlock Patterns 390
Index of WinDbg Commands 391
Cover Images 394
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