** What's this? **
On a 64-bit Windows installation is it possible to make both 32-bit and 64-bit dumps of
32-bit processes.
The task manager will create a 64-bit dump, which therefore is often what you end up with
users sending you. This is not a problem for native executeables since you can still load
it in windbg and use the !wow64exts.sw extension to switch into the 32-bit view.
However if your process is a .NET process and you want to use SoS to investigate it then
you are out of luck, you'll just get the message
"SOS does not support the current target architecture."
This extension gets around this by hooking/patching functions in dbgeng.dll so that SoS
thinks it's working with a 32-bit dump.
** Usage **
Copy soswow64.dll into the "winxp" subfolder of windbg. Then after loading a 64-bit memory
dump of a 32-bit process you can simply load the extension:
0:000> .load soswow64
Successfully hooked IDebugControl::GetExecutingProcessorType.
Successfully patched DbgEng!X86MachineInfo::ConvertCanonContextToTarget.
Example:
0:000> .loadby sos clr
0:000> !wow64exts.sw
Switched to 32bit mode
0:000:x86> !threads
SOS does not support the current target architecture.
0:000:x86> .load soswow64
Successfully hooked IDebugControl::GetExecutingProcessorType.
Successfully patched DbgEng!X86MachineInfo::ConvertCanonContextToTarget.
0:000:x86> !threads
ThreadCount: 16
UnstartedThread: 0
BackgroundThread: 4
PendingThread: 0
DeadThread: 11
Hosted Runtime: no
Lock
ID OSID ThreadOBJ State GC Mode GC Alloc Context Domain Count Apt Exception
0 1 318c 00fe9d58 202a020 Preemptive 029CD30C:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 MTA
2 2 5858 00ff78c8 2b220 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 MTA (Finalizer)
XXXX 3 0 00fd63b8 8039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Completion Port)
3 5 1ddc 01045c68 8029220 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 MTA (Threadpool Completion Port)
XXXX 6 0 01046c18 8039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Completion Port)
XXXX 7 0 010857c8 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 8 0 01089a20 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 9 0 0108b300 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 10 0 0108ceb8 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 12 0 0109d418 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 13 0 0109dc38 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 14 0 010b2b10 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 15 0 01084b98 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
XXXX 16 0 010be6b0 1039820 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
4 18 5b88 01032318 1020220 Preemptive 00000000:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 Ukn (Threadpool Worker)
5 20 192c 0102ee48 202b220 Preemptive 029CE75C:00000000 00fdd4d0 0 MTA
** Compatibility **
Any version of sos that either has the name "sos.dll" or the OriginalFilename "sos.dll" in its
version info resource should work since we are hooking the IDebugControl interface.
The patching of dbgeng!X86MachineInfo::ConvertCanonContextToTarget has been tested with the
following versions of dbgeng.dll:
6.6.7.5 (Debugging tools for Vista, WinDbg 6.6.0007.5)
6.12.2.633 (Debugging tools for Windows 7, WinDbg 6.12.0002.633)
6.2.9200.20512 (Debugging tools for Windows 8.0, WinDbg 6.2.9200.16384)
6.3.9600.16384 (Debugging tools for Windows 8.1, WinDbg 6.3.9600.16384)
10.0.10586.0 (Debugging tools for Windows 10, WinDbg 10.0.10586.567)
10.0.14281.933 (Debugging tools for Windows 10 (insider preview), WinDbg 10.0.14281.933)
The extension will not work on Windows versions older than Windows Vista.
** How? **
I have described the details on my blog:
https://poizan.dk/blog/2015/10/15/using-sos-to-debug-32-bit-code-in-a-64-bit-dump-with-windbg/
Note that we are hooking IDebugControl::GetExecutingProcessorType to return the effective
processor type instead if we are called from sos.dll. That way it should work with every
sos versions without having to look for specific signatures.
The patching of DbgEng!X86MachineInfo::ConvertCanonContextToTarget is done by looking for
signatures, so it probably works with other revisions than the five listed above.
** Bugs & improvements? **
Just file an issue at https://github.com/poizan42/soswow64/issues. If you have a version
of dbgeng.dll that it does not work with then it would be helpful if you sent me the dll
as it may be hard to figure out how to get a specific version otherwise.