The number one crash in the display control panel looks like this:
rax=ffffffff924bbde0 rbx=0000000000000001 rcx=0000000000030440 rdx=0000000000000002 rsi=0000000000030440 rdi=0000000080006011 rip=00007ffac835cd1e rsp=000000155e48e3f8 rbp=000000155e48e749 r8=0000000000000000 r9=0000000000000000 r10=007fffffffe41b69 r11=00007df502390000 r12=0000000000000000 r13=0000000000000000 r14=0000000000000002 r15=0000000000000000 iopl=0 nv up ei pl nz na pe nc cs=0033 ss=002b ds=002b es=002b fs=0053 gs=002b efl=00010206 ntdll!LdrpDispatchUserCallTarget+0xe: 00007fff`924acd1e mov r11,qword ptr [r11+r10*8] ds:04007df5`0159db48=???????????????? 0:000> k Call Site ntdll!LdrpDispatchUserCallTarget+0xe user32!UserCallWinProcCheckWow+0x2bd user32!DispatchClientMessage+0x9c user32!__fnDWORD+0x33 ntdll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue win32u!ZwUserDestroyWindow+0x14 comctl32!_RealPropertySheet+0x36d comctl32!_PropertySheet+0x47 Display!PropertySheetW+0x5d Display!AdvancedSettingSheetHelper+0x3be Display!ShowAdapterSettings+0x89 rundll32!CallRunDllFunction+0x1c rundll32!wWinMain+0x2bf rundll32!__wmainCRTStartup+0x1c9 kernel32!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x14 ntdll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x21
From the stack, we see that we have a display adapter settings property sheet. We are destroying it, and we crash trying to validate the window procedure address.
We saw some time ago that you can pull out the bad address by inspection.
0:000> u .-e . ntdll!LdrpDispatchUserCallTarget: 00007fff`924acd10 mov r11,qword ptr [ntdll+0x001813a8] 00007fff`924acd17 mov r10,rax 00007fff`924acd1a shr r10,9 00007fff`924acd1e mov r11,qword ptr [r11+r10*8]
The register that is the source of the shift is rax, so that’s the function pointer. And from the register dump, we see that the address is
rax=ffffffff924bbde0
Yeah, that address doesn’t look like a valid function pointer.
On 64-bit systems, user-mode pointers have low addresses (which start with 0000), and kernel-mode pointers have high addresses (which start with ffff). So this function pointer is clearly invalid for user mode.
Maybe we can fix it so it’s valid again. Let’s see what code addresses are valid in this process.
0:000> lm start end module name 00000001`80000000 00000001`80043000 contoso 00007ff6`44570000 00007ff6`44587000 rundll32 00007fff`6a4f0000 00007fff`6a6b7000 d3d9 00007fff`6e600000 00007fff`6e6a9000 comctl32_7fff6e600000 00007fff`6f5d0000 00007fff`6f5e5000 pcacli 00007fff`753b0000 00007fff`753c1000 sfc_os ... 00007fff`91020000 00007fff`910f0000 comdlg32 00007fff`912b0000 00007fff`915e6000 combase 00007fff`91600000 00007fff`91794000 user32 00007fff`917a0000 00007fff`91852000 kernel32 00007fff`918e0000 00007fff`91989000 SHCore 00007fff`91990000 00007fff`91ae6000 ole32 00007fff`91af0000 00007fff`91b16000 gdi32 00007fff`91b20000 00007fff`91bc3000 advapi32 00007fff`91bd0000 00007fff`91c67000 sechost 00007fff`91c70000 00007fff`91cc2000 shlwapi 00007fff`91cd0000 00007fff`91ced000 imagehlp 00007fff`91d50000 00007fff`921c0000 setupapi 00007fff`92220000 00007fff`92355000 msctf 00007fff`92420000 00007fff`92610000 ntdll ...
Ny suspicion is that the function pointer got truncated to a 32-bit value, and then was sign-extended back up to a 64-bit value. So we are looking for valid function pointers of the form xxxxxxxx`924bbde0. In the above list of valid code addresses, the only ones that have the lower bits in the 92xxxxxx range all have a high 32 bits of 00007fff, so let’s plug that in and see if we get a window procedure.
0:000> ln 7fff924bbde0 (00007fff`924bbde0) ntdll!NtdllButtonWndProc_A | (00007fff`924bbdf0) ntdll!NtdllButtonWndProc_W
Jackpot.
So the caller probably subclassed a window, and then tried to restore the original window procedure, but messed up and restored only the bottom 32 bits.
But who could that be?
0:000> k Call Site ntdll!LdrpICallHandler+0xf ntdll!RtlpExecuteHandlerForException+0xf ntdll!RtlDispatchException+0x219 ntdll!KiUserExceptionDispatch+0x2e ntdll!LdrpDispatchUserCallTarget+0xe user32!UserCallWinProcCheckWow+0x2bd user32!DispatchClientMessage+0x9c user32!__fnDWORD+0x33 ntdll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue win32u!ZwUserDestroyWindow+0x14 comctl32!_RealPropertySheet+0x36d comctl32!_PropertySheet+0x47 Display!PropertySheetW+0x5d Display!AdvancedSettingSheetHelper+0x3be Display!ShowAdapterSettings+0x89 rundll32!CallRunDllFunction+0x1c rundll32!wWinMain+0x2bf rundll32!__wmainCRTStartup+0x1c9 kernel32!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x14 ntdll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x21
This is a property sheet, so we should be able to extract the pages of the property sheet. (Note: Requires internal Microsoft symbols, so you won’t be able to do this at home.)
0:000> .frame d
09 00000017`85a7e820 00007fff`86e60349 Display!AdvancedSettingSheetHelper+0x3be
0:000> dv
hwndParent = <value unavailable>
psh = struct _PROPSHEETHEADERW_V2
szMonitor = wchar_t [140] "Generic PnP Monitor"
rPages = struct _PSP *[100]
iResult = 0n0
The desktop background control panel is extensible, and the way that a plug-in adds a page to the desktop background control panel is by handling the IShellPropSheetExt::HPROPSHEETPAGE. What that function does is add the HPROPSHEETPAGE to the pages in the property sheet. (We can see that there’s room for 100 of them in the rPages.)
And the psh is the PROPSHEETHEADER.
0:000> ?? psh
struct _PROPSHEETHEADERW_V2
+0x000 dwSize : 0x60
+0x004 dwFlags : 0x2000001
+0x008 hwndParent : 0x00000000`000401aa HWND__
+0x010 hInstance : 0x00007fff`86e50000 HINSTANCE__
+0x018 hIcon : (null)
+0x020 pszCaption : 0x00000017`85a7f100 "Generic PnP Monitor and Contoso Chipset"
+0x028 nPages : 4
+0x030 nStartPage : 0
+0x038 ppsp : 0x00000017`85a7ec70 _PROPSHEETPAGEW
+0x038 phpage : 0x00000017`85a7ec70 -> 0x000001d5`4e1aac90 _PSP
We see that there are four pages, so we can inspect the first four HPROPSHEETPAGEs in rPages.
And hey look, we have an array of HPROPSHEETPAGE structures
0:000> ?? psh.phpage[0] struct _PSP * 0x000001d5`4e1aac90 0:000> ?? psh.phpage[1] struct _PSP * 0x000001d5`4e19e470 0:000> ?? psh.phpage[2] struct _PSP * 0x000001d5`4e19e520 0:000> ?? psh.phpage[3] struct _PSP * 0x000001d5`4e1d26d0
The HPROPSHEETPAGE is an opaque structure, but we can dump it and look for interesting things, for entertainment purposes only.
0:000> dps 0x000001d5`4e1aac90 l4 000001d5`4e1aac90 000001d5`4e1aac60 000001d5`4e1aac98 00000000`00000000 000001d5`4e1aaca0 00004088`00000068 000001d5`4e1aaca8 00007fff`88d70000 deskadp 0:000> dps 0x000001d5`4e19e470 l4 000001d5`4e19e470 000001d5`4e19e440 000001d5`4e19e478 00000000`00000000 000001d5`4e19e480 00004088`00000068 000001d5`4e19e488 00007fff`893e0000 deskmon 0:000> dps 0x000001d5`4e19e520 l4 000001d5`4e19e520 000001d5`4e19e4f0 000001d5`4e19e528 00000000`00000000 000001d5`4e19e530 000040c8`00000068 000001d5`4e19e538 00007fff`86e30000 colorui 0:000> dps 0x000001d5`4e1d26d0 l4 000001d5`4e1d26d0 000001d5`4e1bcb30 000001d5`4e1d26d8 000001d5`4e1d26a0 000001d5`4e1d26e0 0000008a`00000068 000001d5`4e1d26e8 00000001`80000000 contoso
There are a bunch of HMODULEs here, which are probably the modules that the property sheet page came from. The first three come with Windows. The last one apparently is Contoso. Let’s focus on at last one.
After the first two values (which look like pointers), we have 0x00000068 which is not-coincidentally sizeof(PROPSHEETPAGE), so I’m going to guess that this is where the system stores the PROPSHEETPAGE that the handle was created from.
Note: Note that this is an implementation detail and should be used only for debugging purposes. Please don’t write programs that rely on this, because it can change.¹
0:000> dt comctl32!_PROPSHEETPAGEW 000001d5`4e1d26e0
+0x000 dwSize : 0x68
+0x004 dwFlags : 0x8a
+0x008 hInstance : 0x00000001`80000000 HINSTANCE__
+0x010 pszTemplate : 0x00000000`00000589 "--- memory read error at address 0x00000000`00000589 ---"
+0x010 pResource : 0x00000000`00000589 DLGTEMPLATE
+0x018 hIcon : 0x00000000`000503b9 HICON__
+0x018 pszIcon : 0x00000000`000503b9 "--- memory read error at address 0x00000000`000503b9 ---"
+0x020 pszTitle : 0x000001d5`4e19cde0 "?????"
+0x028 pfnDlgProc : 0x00000001`800047ac contoso+0x47ac
+0x030 lParam : 0n2015682301296
+0x038 pfnCallback : (null)
+0x040 pcRefParent : (null)
+0x048 pszHeaderTitle : (null)
+0x050 pszHeaderSubTitle : (null)
+0x058 hActCtx : (null)
+0x060 hbmHeader : (null)
+0x060 pszbmHeader : (null)
The dialog procedure is 0x00000001`800047ac. I’m hoping I can reverse-engineer it enough to see the place where it subclassed the button incorrectly.
00000001`800047ac mov [rsp+8],rbx
00000001`800047b1 mov [rsp+10h],rbp
00000001`800047b6 mov [rsp+18h],rsi
00000001`800047bb push rdi
00000001`800047bc sub rsp,30h
00000001`800047c0 mov rdi,r9 ; rdi = r9 = lParam
00000001`800047c3 mov rbp,r8 ; rbp = r8 = wParam
00000001`800047c6 mov esi,edx ; esi = edx = message
00000001`800047c8 mov rbx,rcx ; rbx = rcx = hdlg
00000001`800047cb cmp edx,110h ; Q: WM_INITDIALOG?
00000001`800047d1 jne 00000001`800047e2 ; N: Skip
00000001`800047d3 mov r8,[r9+30h] ; Y: r8 = ((PROPSHEETPAGE*)r9)->lParam
00000001`800047d7 mov edx,0FFFFFFEBh ; edx = -21
; ecx = hdlg (unchanged)
00000001`800047dc call [00000001`8002b4a0] ; mystery function 1
00000001`800047e2 mov edx,0FFFFFFEBh ; edx = -21
00000001`800047e7 mov rcx,rbx ; rcx = hdlg
00000001`800047ea call [00000001`8002b480] ; mystery function 2
00000001`800047f0 test rax,rax ; Q: Failed?
00000001`800047f3 je 00000001`8000480b ; Y: Bail out
00000001`800047f5 mov r9,rbp ; param4 = wParam
00000001`800047f8 mov r8d,esi ; param3 = message
00000001`800047fb mov rdx,rbx ; param2 = hdlg
00000001`800047fe mov rcx,rax ; param1 = from mystery function 2
00000001`80004801 mov [rsp+20h],rdi ; param5 = lParam
00000001`80004806 call 00000001`800045fc ; mystery function 3
00000001`8000480b mov rbx,[rsp+40h] ; restore registers
00000001`80004810 mov rbp,[rsp+48h]
00000001`80004815 mov rsi,[rsp+50h]
00000001`8000481a add rsp,30h
00000001`8000481e pop rdi
00000001`8000481f ret ; done
We know that the lParam parameter to the WM_ message is the value passed as the “parameter” to functions like CreateDialogParam, and specifically for property sheets, it’s a pointer to a PROPSHEETPAGE. And we saw from the structure dump above that offset 0x30 is the lParam.
From the structure of this function, it’s clear that the magic value -21 is GWLP_, mystery function 1 is SetWindowLongPtr, and mystery function 2 is GetWindowLongPtr. This is a standard pattern for dialog box functions, and it’s common to use a wrapper function.
The real dialog procedure is the third mystery function, so let’s look at that.
00000001`800045fc mov [rsp+8],rbx 00000001`80004601 mov [rsp+10h],rbp 00000001`80004606 mov [rsp+18h],rsi 00000001`8000460b push rdi 00000001`8000460c push r12 00000001`8000460e push r13 00000001`80004610 sub rsp,20h 00000001`80004614 mov rsi,[rsp+60h] ; rsi = lParam 00000001`80004619 mov rbp,r9 ; rbp = wParam 00000001`8000461c mov ebx,r8d ; ebx = message 00000001`8000461f mov r13,rdx ; r13 = hdlg 00000001`80004622 mov rdi,rcx ; rdi = this 00000001`80004625 cmp r8d,2Bh ; Q: WM_DRAWITEM? 00000001`80004629 jne 00000001`80004685 ; N: Skip
After the initial register spilling and saving, it checks if the message is 0x2B: WM_DRAWITEM. That’s not particularly interesting to us, so let’s assume it’s not.
00000001`80004685 sub ebx,2 ; Q: WM_DESTROY? 00000001`80004688 je 00000001`8000470f
Ooh, the WM_ message is interesting. It’s probably going to restore the original window procedure in its WM_ handler, and that’s where we hope to find the truncation.
00000001`8000470f mov rcx,[rdi+110h] ; rcx = something 00000001`80004716 movsxd rbx,dword ptr [00000001`80039c50] ; rbx = something 00000001`8000471d mov edx,668h ; ecx = some number 00000001`80004722 call [00000001`8002b4e0] ; mystery function 4 00000001`80004728 mov r8,rbx ; r8 = something 00000001`8000472b mov edx,0FFFFFFFCh ; edx = -12 00000001`80004730 mov rcx,rax ; rcx = function 4 retval 00000001`80004733 call [00000001`8002b4a0] ; mystery function 1 again
On receipt of the WM_ message, the code starts by getting something out of the this pointer (which we saw in the prologue was saved in rdi), and loads some other thing from a global variable.
Next, it calls mystery function 00000001`8002b4e0 with 0x668 as the second parameter. Not sure what that is, but we’ll keep it in mind.
Next, we set up for another function call, and this one we recognize: 00000001`8002b4a0 is the import address table entry for SetWindowLongPtr. We saw it in the static dialog procedure.
The parameters are the window handle that was obtained from mystery function 4, the constant -12, and the 32-bit value we loaded from 00000001`80039c50. The mystery function 4 was probably GetÂDlgÂItem. And since we figured out that the function being called is SetWindowLongPtr, the value -12 is GWLP_WNDPROC.
The value being set is the third parameter, which was loaded by movsxd dword ptr, which is a 32-bit to 64-bit sign-extended load. This is a problem because the window procedure is a 64-bit value.
I bet they loaded the value incorrectly.
0:000> dp 00000001`80039c50 l1 00000001`80039c50 00007fff`924bbde0
Hey look, it’s the full 64-bit pointer we were supposed to have used, except we messed up and truncated the pointer.
The C++ source code probably looked like this:
SetWindowLongPtr(GetDlgItem(m_hdlg, 0x668),
GWLP_WNDPROC, (LONG)g_originalWndProc);
The cast to LONG is what’s doing the truncation and sign extension. It should be a cast to LONG_PTR.
We can patch this into the binary after looking at the processor instruction encoding documentation.
The original instruction was
00000001`80004716 48631d33550300 movsxd rbx,dword ptr [00000001`80039c50]
The documentation says that the encoding for movxsd r64, r/m32 is “REX.W + 63 /r”.
What we want is mov rbx, [00000001`80039c50], and the documentation says that the encoding for mov r64, r/m64 is “REX.W + 8B /r”.
So let’s patch the 63 to 8b.
0:000> eb 00000001`80004717 8b 0:000> u 00000001`80004716 l1 00000001`80004716 488b1d33550300 mov rbx,qword ptr [00000001`80039c50]
This is literally a one-byte bug fix.
Next time, we’ll speculate on how this bug arose.
Bonus reading: The decoy control panel.
¹ Back in the late 1990’s, we discovered a program that reverse-engineered the internal data structures of the Windows 95 property sheet manager to the point where instead of passing an HPROPSHEETPAGE that was created by the CreateÂPropertyÂSheetÂPage function, it created fake HPROPSHEETPAGEs that it had constructed manually in memory. This made adding support for Unicode property sheets that much harder because the internal structure of HPROPSHEETPAGEs changed in order to support both ANSI and Unicode property sheet pages, and they were passing the old version. The property sheet manager has to recognize that it is being given a fake HPROPSHEETPAGE and convert it on the fly to a real one.
How did you get from rax=ffffffffc836d280 to the function pointer form xxxxxxxx`924bbde0?
Because it was an editing error. I combined information from multiple debug sessions and missed a spot when I glued them together. I’ve fixed it.