Basic Tutorials & Usage Demos
- Installing and Configuring WinDbg (Windows Debug Tools)
- Mike Taulty - A word for WinDbg
- WinDbg Tutorials
- Windows Debuggers: Part 1: A WinDbg Tutorial
Different Ways to "Start"/Attach WinDbg
- Start Debugging with WinDbg (includes how to debug an .msi)
- How to debug a Windows service
- Setting up Windows Debugging
- Debugging SQL Server...here, here, here, here
Workspaces (Understanding how they work)
- Pimp up your debugger: Creating a custom workspace for WinDbg debugging
- Uncovering How Workspaces Work in WinDbg
Cmdtree
Allows you to define a "menu" of debugger commands for easy access to frequently used commands without having to remember the terse command names. Don't have to put all the command definitions into the same cmdtree text file....you can keep them separate and load multiple ones (they then get their own window).
- Amazing helper .cmdtree
- How do I make a cmdtree window dock at startup in WinDbg
- Making it easier to debug .NET dumps in WinDbg using .cmdtree
- Microshaoft Cmdtree
- Special Command—Execute Commands from a Customized User Interface with .cmdtree
Startup Script
You can use the -c option on the command line to automatically run a WinDbg script when you start WinDbg.
Gives opportunity to turn on DML (Debugger Markup Language) mode, load particular extensions, set .NET exception breakpoints, set kernel flags (e.g. when kernel debugging you might need to change the DbgPrint mask so you see tracing information....ed nt!Kd_DEFAULT_Mask 0xFFFFFFFF), load cmdtrees, etc.
- http://yeilho.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/windbg-init-script.html
- Take Control of WinDbg
An example script:
$$ Include a directory to search for extensions
$$ (point to a source controlled or UNC common directory so that all developers get access)
.extpath+"c:\svn\DevTools\WinDBG\Extensions"
$$ When debugging a driver written with the Windows Driver Framework/KMDF
$$ load this extension that comes from the WinDDK.
!load C:\WinDDK\7600.16385.1\bin\x86\wdfkd.dll
!wdftmffile C:\WinDDK\7600.16385.1\tools\tracing\i386\wdf01009.tmf
$$ load some extensions
.load msec.dll
.load byakugan.dll
.load odbgext.dll
.load sosex
.load psscor4
$$ Make commands that support DML (Debugger Markup Language) use it
.prefer_dml 1
.dml_start
$$ Show NTSTATUS codes in hex by default
.enable_long_status 1
$$ Set default extension
.setdll psscor4
$$ Show all loaded extensions
.chain /D
$$ Load some command trees
.cmdtree c:\svn\DevTools\WinDBG\cmdtree\cmdtree1.txt
.cmdtree c:\svn\DevTools\WinDBG\cmdtree\cmdtree2.txt
$$ Show some help for the extensions
!wdfkd.help
!psscor4.help
.help /D
Command Cheat Sheets
- Crash Dump Analysis Poster v3.0
- SOS Cheat Sheet (.NET 2.0/3.0/3.5)
- WinDbg cheat sheet (Art of Dev)
- WinDbg Kernel-Mode Extension Commands Flashcards
Extensions (extend the range of commands/features supported)
- AddSym
- allows transfer of symbol names between IDA and WinDbg
- bigLasagne (bldbgexts & blwdbgue)
- assembly syntax highlighting and a driver mapping tool)
- BigLib Number Reader
- Byakugan
- detect antidebugging methods, vista heap visualization/emulation, track buffers in memory
- CmdHist
- records every command you executed in your debug session so you can re-execute easily
- Core Analyzer
- check heap structures for corruption, detect objects shared by threads, etc.
- dom WinDbg Extension
- (!stlpvector, !idt, !unhex, !grep, etc.)
- dumppe
- dumps PE file from memory
- Image Viewer Extension (Vladimir Vukicevic)
- Intel UEFI Development Kit Debugger Tool
- debug UEFI firmware
- leaktrap
- GDI/USER handle tracker to aid in leak detection
- Mona (requires PyKD)
- set of commands to aid in advanced analysis/find exploits
- MSEC
- provides automated crash analysis and security risk assessment
- narly
- lists info about loaded modules such as if using SafeSEH, ASLR, DEP, /GS (Buffer Security Checks)
- netext (Rodney Viana)
- (!wservice - list WCF service objects, !wconfig - show .config lines, !whttp - list HttpContexts, !wselect/!wfrom - support SQL like queries on arrays)
- ODbgExt
- open debugger extensions
- OllyMigrate
- pass debuggee to another debugger without restarting
- Psscor2
- a superset of SOS for assisting in debugging .NET 2.0 managed code
- Psscor4
- a superset of SOS for assisting in debugging .NET 4 managed code
- PyDBGExt
- allows Python scripting to be used
- PyKD
- allows Python to be used to script WinDbg
- sdbgext (Nynaeve)
-(!valloc, !vallocrwx, !heapalloc, !heapfree, !remotecall, !remotecall64, !loaddll, !unloaddll, !close, !killthread, !adjpriv, !ret)
- SieExtPub
-legacy extension...now built into WinDbg in ext.dll
- SOSEX
- more commands for helping to debug managed NET 2.0 or 4.0 code
- SPT/SDBGExt2 (Steve Niemitz)
- (!DumpHttpContext, !DumpASPNetRequests, !DumpSqlConnectionPools, !DumpThreadPool, etc.)
- Uniqstack
- source to a debugger extension (need an OSR Online account to access it)
- viscope
- code coverage graph
- Wait Chain Traversal/wct.dll (CodePlex Debugging Extensions
- display wait chains of application threads (helps find deadlocks)
- windbgshark
- integrates the Wireshark protocol analyser to enable VM traffic manipulation and analysis
- WinDbg Extensions (Sasha Goldstein)
- Tracer, WCT, heap_stat, bkb, traverse_map, traverse_vector)
- WinDbg Highlight (ColorWindbg.dll) (Use Google Translate to translate link)
- assembly language syntax highlighting
Write your own extension
- Developing WinDbg ExtEngCpp Extension in C++
- Tools of the Trade: Part IV - Developing WinDbg Extension DLLs
- The Basics of Debugger Extensions: Short Term Effort, Long Term Gain
Debugging Managed Code
- Breaking on an Exception
- Breaking on specific CLR Exception
- Debugging .NET framework source code within WinDbg
- Debugging exceptions in managed code using WinDbg
- Debugging managed code using WinDbg and SOS.dll
- Debugging with WinDbg. Deadlocks in Applications.
- MANAGED DEBUGGING with WinDbg. Introduction and Index
- Setting .NET breakpoints in WinDbg for applications that crash on startup
Scripting (C#, PS, Python, and WinDbg)
- KDAR (Kernel Debugger Anti Rootkit)
- a collection of WinDbg scripts
- Sysnative BSOD Scripts/Processing Apps
- WinDbg Script library
- a collection of WinDbg scripts
- Scripting MDbg and DbgHostLib
- allows managed code to script the Managed Debugger (MDBG) and the DbgEng
- ExtCS
- allows control of WinDbg via C# scripts
- PowerDBG
- allows control of WinDbg via PowerShell scripts
- Pykd
- allows control of WinDbg via Python scripts
- windbglib
- Python wrapper library around the pykd extension for WinDbg, mimicking immlib (so you can use scripts originally written for Immunity Debugger)
Debuggers/Tools that use the dbgeng.dll API/WinDbg Tools
- A Simple Dbgeng Based User Mode Debugger
- Acorns.Debugging NET Deadlock Detector (uses cdb.exe) (download)
- CLR Managed Debugger (MDBG)
- DbgHost - How to control a debugging engine
- Debug Diagnostic Tool v1.2 (DebugDiag), Ver 2.0 + DebugDiag Blog
- Dynamorio - dynamic binary instrumentation tool which can interact with WinDbg
- IDA + WinDbg plugin
- GUI WinDbg
- LeakShell (find managed leaks)
- mdbglib - Managed Debug API
- PyDbgEng
- Python wrapper for Windows Debugging Engine
- SOSNET - a WinDbg Fork/alternative shell that concentrates on using the SOS extension and supports C# scripting
- SOSNET O2 fork - fork of SOSNET that uses Roslyn for the C# REPL (read-eval-print-loop) scripting engine
- VDB/Vivisect (kenshoto) - provides a cross-platform debugging API layered on WinDbg
- WinAppDbg + Heappie-WinAppDbg
- Writing a basic Windows debugger
Different Ways to Generate Crash Dump Files for Post-Mortem Analysis
- DebugDiag 2.0
- Dump Cheat Sheet
- includes how to generate dump from Hyper-V, VMware ESX, and XenServer VMs.
- Citrix SystemDump
- Keyboard Keypress Combination
- MiniDumpWriteDump
- (via Win32 API call inside your application). (Example for C# applications)
- NMI Switch
(hardware based feature to generate an NMI...usually found on high-end servers e.g. HP or you can obtain an add-in PCI card "Universal PCI Dump Switch"). Microsoft NMI technology background.
- Procdump
- Menu System ? Advanced System Settings ? Startup and Recovery
(registry info),
(how to configure a Complete (Full) Memory Dump),
(how to enable Complete Memory Dump),
(how to enable Complete Memory Dump on Windows 7 when PC has lots of memory...normally not available when more than 2 GB of memory)
- Task Manager "Create Dump File"
- UserDump, instructions (very old tool)
- UserModeProcessDumper, instructions
- Visual Studio "Save Dump As…"
- WER (Windows Error Reporting....local dumps)
- WinDbg
Dump Analysis Tools
- BlueScreenView - finds the minidump .dmp files saved by Windows after a BSOD, and extracts information about what caused the crash
- Debug.Analyzer (can analyse dump files and plug-ins can be written in .NET)
- SAD - Simple After Dump (postmortem analyzer)
- Volatility - framework for analyzing "memory" recorded in dump files (cheat sheet)
Dump related Tools
- Citrix dumpcheck - checks consistency of dump file (looks like it's been abandoned link + link)
- dumpchk (part of Debugging Tools) - checks consistency of a Dump file
- MoonSols Windows Memory Toolkit (formerly windd) - converts various raw memory dump files into WinDbg compatible dmp files
- vm2dmp - Microsoft Hyper-V VM State to Memory Dump Converter
- vmss2core - converts VMware snapshot file into a core dump file (download), (instructions)
Kernel Debugging Virtual Machines
- VMKD - Virtual Machine KD Extensions
- VirtualKD - (kernel debugger support for OS's hosted in VMware/VirtualBox)
Videos
- .NET Cracking 101 #2 - WinDbg basics
- .NET Debugging for the Production Environment (Channel9)
- dotnetConf - Advanced Debugging with WinDbg and SOS
- David Truxall "Debugging with WinDbg"
- Mike Taulty Debugging Memory Leaks
- oredev 2009 Session: Debugging .NET Applications with WinDbg
- Pluralsight Advanced Windows Debugging
(plus various other ones at Pluralsight)
- Tess Ferrandez WinDbg (Channel9)
- TiGa's Video Tutorial Series on IDA Pro
Blogs
- Advanced .NET Debugging
- All Your Base Are Belong To Us (Sasha Goldstein)
- Analyze-v
- ASP.NET Debugging
- Cyberiafreak (threading and advanced Windows programming and debugging)
- Debug Analyzer.NET
- Debug and Beyond
- Debugging Experts Magazine Online
- Debugging Toolbox (WinDbg scripts, debugging and troubleshooting tools and techniques to help you isolate software problems.)
- Decrypt my World
- greggm's WebLog
- Junfeng Zhang's Windows Programming Notes
- Kristoffer's tidbits
- Mark Russinovich's Blog
- Mike Stalls .NET Debugging Blog
- Naveen's Blog
- Never Doubt Thy Debugger (Carlo)
- Notes from a Dark Corner
- Ntdebugging Blog (Microsoft Global Escalation Services team)
- Nynaeve. Adventures in Windows debugging and reverse engineering
- PFE Developer Notes for the Field
- Visual Studio Debugger Team
- WinDbg by Volker von Einem
Advanced Articles & Tutorial Resources
- Advanced Debugging Techniques in WinDbg
- Debugging Applications for MS.Net and Windows (PowerPoint Slides)
- Debugging STL Containers with WinDbg
- Debug Tutorials 1-7 (CodeProject-Toby Opferman)
- Debugging.tv
- Developmentor WinDbg Tagged articles
- Dr Fu's Security Blog - Malware Analysis Tutorials - Reverse Engineering Approach
- Exploit writing tutorial part 5 : How debugger modules & plugins can speed up basic exploit development
- Hunting Rootkits
- Remote Microsoft Windows Server OS Kernel Debugging Using Dell Windows Debugger Utility (DWDU) (DELL(TM) Windows(R) Debugger Utility 1.1 README)
Alternative Debuggers
- Bokken - (Inguma) (GUI for radare)
- BugDbg
- Debug++ (not released yet)
- Debuggy
- Discoloured Ring 0 Debugger (download)
- edb (Linux)
- FDBG
- GoBug
- Hades (Ring 3 debugger with anti debugger detection strategy)
- Hopper (Linux, OS X and Windows) (Windows debugging not currently implemented)
- Hyperdbg
- IDA Debugger
- ImmunityDebugger
- Nanomite
- Obsidian (non-intrusive debugger)
- OllyDBG
- PEBrowse
- RaceVB6 (VB6 P-Code debugger)
- radare
- radare2ui (GUI for radare)
- Rasta Ring 0 Debugger (RR0D)
- Syser Kernel Debugger
- TRW 2000 (very old debugger circa W9x) + dions plugin archive
- VisualDux Debugger
- Wintruder (extendable debugger)
- WKTVDebugger (a debugger for Visual Basic P-Code) (download)
- x64_dbg
- Zeta Debugger
Other Links
- Collaborative RCE Tool Library
- debugger and system level tools
- cr4zyserb
- plugins & other debugging tools
- How to Write a Windows Debugger References (Devon Straw)
- detailed information that you would need if you wanted to write your own debugger e.g. PDB file format, .DMP file formats, PE File structure, how to record stack traces, etc., etc.
- Tuts4You
- unpackers, IDA, OllyDBG, Immunity Debugger plugins, etc.
