Improving Automated Analysis of Windows x64 Binaries

EDB-ID:

13177

CVE:

N/A

Author:

skape

Type:

papers

Platform:

Multiple

Published:

2006-06-09

original location: http://uninformed.org/

Improving Automated Analysis of Windows x64 Binaries
April 2006
skape
mmiller@hick.org


1) Foreword

Abstract: As Windows x64 becomes a more prominent platform, it will
become necessary to develop techniques that improve the binary analysis
process.  In particular, automated techniques that can be performed
prior to doing code or data flow analysis can be useful in getting a
better understanding for how a binary operates.  To that point, this
paper gives a brief explanation of some of the changes that have been
made to support Windows x64 binaries.  From there, a few basic
techniques are illustrated that can be used to improve the process of
identifying functions, annotating their stack frames, and describing
their exception handler relationships. Source code to an example IDA
plugin is also included that shows how these techniques can be
implemented.

Thanks: The author would like to thank bugcheck, sh0k, jt, spoonm, and
Skywing.

Update: The article in MSDN magazine by Matt Pietrek was
published after this article was written.  However, it contains a
lot of useful information and touches on many of the same topics
that this article covers in the background chapter.  The article can
be found here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/05/x64/default.aspx.

With that, on with the show


2) Introduction

The demand for techniques that can be used to improve the analysis
process of Windows x64 binaries will only increase as the Windows x64
platform becomes more accepted and used in the market place.  There is a
deluge of useful information surrounding techniques that can be used to
perform code and data flow analysis that is also applicable to the x64
architecture.  However, techniques that can be used to better annotate
and streamline the initial analysis phases, such as identifying
functions and describing their stack frames, is still a ripe area for
improvement at the time of this writing.  For that reason, this paper
will start by describing some of the changes that have been made to
support Windows x64 binaries.  This background information is useful
because it serves as a basis for understanding a few basic techniques
that may be used to improve some of the initial analysis phases. During
the course of this paper, the term Windows x64 binary will simply be
reduced to x64 binary in the interest of brevity.


3) Background

Prior to diving into some of the analysis techniques that can be
performed on x64 binaries, it's first necessary to learn a bit about
some of the changes that were made to support the x64 architecture.
This chapter will give a very brief explanation of some of the things
that have been introduced, but will by no means attempt to act as an
authoritative reference.


3.1) PE32+ Image File Format

The image file format for the x64 platform is known as PE32+.  As one
would expect, the file format is derived from the PE file format with
only very slight modifications.  For instance, 64-bit binaries contain
an IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER64 rather than an IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER.  The
differences between these two structures are described in the table
below:

  Field              | PE    | PE32+
  -------------------+-------+------------------------------
  BaseOfData         | ULONG | Removed from structure
  ImageBase          | ULONG | ULONGLONG 
  SizeOfStackReserve | ULONG | ULONGLONG
  SizeOfStackCommit  | ULONG | ULONGLONG
  SizeOfHeapReserve  | ULONG | ULONGLONG
  SizeOfHeapCommit   | ULONG | ULONGLONG
  -------------------+-------+------------------------------

In general, any structure attribute in the PE image that made reference
to a 32-bit virtual address directly rather than through an RVA (Relative
Virtual Address) has been expanded to a 64-bit attribute in PE32+.  Other
examples of this include the IMAGE_TLS_DIRECTORY structure and the
IMAGE_LOAD_CONFIG_DIRECTORY structure.

With the exception of certain field offsets in specific structures,
the PE32+ image file format is largely backward compatible with PE
both in use and in form.


3.2) Calling Convention

The calling convention used on x64 is much simpler than those used for
x86. Unlike x86, where calling conventions like stdcall, cdecl, and
fastcall are found, the x64 platform has only one calling convention.
The calling convention that it uses is a derivative of fastcall where
the first four parameters of a function are passed by register and any
remaining parameters are passed through the stack.  Each parameter is 64
bits wide (8 bytes).  The first four parameters are passed through the
RCX, RDX, R8, and R9 registers, respectively.  For scenarios where
parameters are passed by value or are otherwise too large to fit into
one of the 64-bit registers, appropriate steps are taken as documented
in [4].


3.2.1) Stack Frame Layout

The stack frame layout for functions on x64 is very similar to x86, but
with a few key differences.  Just like x86, the stack frame on x64 is
divided into three parts: parameters, return address, and locals.  These
three parts are explained individually below.  One of the important
principals to understand when it comes to x64 stack frames is that the
stack does not fluctuate throughout the course of a given function.  In
fact, the stack pointer is only permitted to change in the context of a
function prologue.  Note that things like alloca are handled in a special
manner[7]. Parameters are not pushed and popped from the stack. Instead,
stack space is pre-allocated for all of the arguments that would be
passed to child functions. This is done, in part, for making it easier
to unwind call stacks in the event of an exception.  The table below
describes a typical stack frame:


   +-------------------------+
   | Stack parameter area    |
   +-------------------------+
   | Register parameter area |
   +-------------------------+
   | Return address          |
   +-------------------------+
   | Locals                  |
   +-------------------------+


== Parameters


The calling convention for functions on x64 dictates that the first four
parameters are passed via register with any remaining parameters,
starting with parameter five, spilling to the stack.  Given that the
fifth parameter is the first parameter passed by the stack, one would
think that the fifth parameter would be the value immediately adjacent
to the return address on the stack, but this is not the case. Instead,
if a given function calls other functions, that function is required to
allocate stack space for the parameters that are passed by register.
This has the affect of making it such that the area of the stack
immediately adjacent to the return address is 0x20 bytes of
uninitialized storage for the parameters passed by register followed
immediately by any parameters that spill to the stack (starting with
parameter five). The area of storage allocated on the stack for the
register parameters is known as the register parameter area whereas the
area of the stack for parameters that spill onto the stack is known as
the stack parameter area.  The table below illustrates what the
parameter portion of a stack frame would look like after making a call
to a function:

   +-------------------------+
   | Parameter 6             |
   +-------------------------+
   | Parameter 5             |
   +-------------------------+
   | Parameter 4 (R9 Home)   |
   +-------------------------+
   | Parameter 3 (R8 Home)   |
   +-------------------------+
   | Parameter 2 (RDX Home)  |
   +-------------------------+
   | Parameter 1 (RCX Home)  |
   +-------------------------+
   | Return address          |
   +-------------------------+


To emphasize further, the register parameter area is always allocated,
even if the function being called has fewer than four arguments.  This
area of the stack is effectively owned by the called function, and as
such can be used for volatile storage during the course of the function
call.  In particular, this area is commonly used to persist the values
of register parameters.  This area is also referred to as the ``home''
address for register parameters.  However, it can also be used to save
non-volatile registers. To someone familiar with x86 it may seem
slightly odd to see functions modifying areas of the stack beyond the
return address. The key is to remember that the 0x20 bytes immediately
adjacent to the return address are owned by the called function. One
important side affect of this requirement is that if a function calls
other functions, the calling function's minimum stack allocation will be
0x20 bytes.  This accounts for the register parameter area that will be
used by called functions.

The obvious question to ask at this point is why it's the caller's
responsibility to allocate stack space for use by the called function.
There are a few different reasons for this.  Perhaps most importantly,
it makes it possible for the called function to take the address of a
parameter that's passed via a register.  Furthermore, the address that
is returned for the parameter must be at a location that is contiguous
in relation to the other parameters.  This is particularly necessary for
variadic functions, which require a contiguous list of parameters, but
may also be necessary for applications that make assumptions about being
able to reference parameters in relation to one another by address.
Invalidating this assumption would introduce source compatibility
problems.

For more information on parameter passing, refer to the MSDN
documentation[4,7].

== Return Address

Due to the fact that pointers are 64 bits wide on x64, the return
address location on the stack is eight bytes instead of four.

== Locals

The locals portion of a function's stack frame encompasses both local
variables and saved non-volatile registers.  For x64, the general
purpose registers described as non-volatile are RBP, RBX, RDI, RSI, and
R12 through R15[5].


3.3) Exception Handling on x64

On x86, exception handling is accomplished through the adding and
removing of exception registration records on a per-thread basis.  When
a function is entered that makes use of an exception handler, it
constructs an exception registration record on the stack that is
composed of an exception handler (a function pointer), and a pointer to
the next element in the exception handler list.  This list of exception
registration records is stored relative to fs:[0].  When an exception
occurs, the exception dispatcher walks the list of exception handlers
and calls each one, checking to see if they are capable of handling the
exception that occurred.  While this approach works perfectly fine,
Microsoft realized that there were better ways to go about it.  First of
all, the adding and removing of exception registration records that are
static in the context of an execution path adds needless execution
overhead.  Secondly, the security implications of storing a function
pointer on the stack have been made very obvious, especially in the case
where that function pointer can be called after an exception is
generated (such as an access violation).  Finally, the process of
unwinding call frames is muddled with limitations, thus making it a more
complicated process than it might otherwise need to be[6].

With these things in mind, Microsoft completely revamped the way
exception handling is accomplished on x64.  The major changes center
around the approaches Microsoft has taken to solve the three major
deficiencies found on x86.  First, Microsoft solved the execution time
overhead issue of adding and removing exception handlers by moving all
of the static exception handling information into a static location in
the binary.  This location, known as the .pdata section, is described by
the PE32+'s Exception Directory.  The structure of this section will be
described in the exception directory subsection.  By eliminating the
need to add and remove exception handlers on the fly, Microsoft has also
eliminated the security issue found on x86 with regard to overwriting
the function pointer of an exception handler.  Perhaps most importantly,
the process involved in unwinding call frames has been drastically
improved through the formalization of the frame unwinding process. This
will be discussed in the subsection on unwind information.


3.3.1) Exception Directory

The Exception Directory of a PE32+ binary is used to convey the complete
list of functions that could be found in a stack frame during an unwind
operation.  These functions are known as non-leaf functions, and they
are qualified as such if they either allocate space on the stack or call
other functions.  The IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY data structure is used
to describe the non-leaf functions, as shown below[1]:

typedef struct _IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY {
    ULONG BeginAddress;
    ULONG EndAddress;
    ULONG UnwindInfoAddress;
} _IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY, *_PIMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY;

The BeginAddress and EndAddress attributes are RVAs that represent the
range of the non-leaf function.  The UnwindInfoAddress will be discussed
in more detail in the following subsection on unwind information.  The
Exception directory itself is merely an array of
IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY structures.  When an exception occurs, the
exception dispatcher will enumerate the array of runtime function
entries until it finds the non-leaf function associated with the address
it's searching for (typically a return address).


3.3.2) Unwind Information

For the purpose of unwinding call frames and dispatching exceptions,
each non-leaf function has some non-zero amount of unwind information
associated with it.  This association is made through the
UnwindInfoAddress attribute of the IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY
structure.  The UnwindInfoAddress itself is an RVA that points to an
UNWIND_INFO structure which is defined as[8]:

typedef struct _UNWIND_INFO {
    UBYTE Version       : 3;
    UBYTE Flags         : 5;
    UBYTE SizeOfProlog;
    UBYTE CountOfCodes;
    UBYTE FrameRegister : 4;
    UBYTE FrameOffset   : 4;
    UNWIND_CODE UnwindCode[1];
/*  UNWIND_CODE MoreUnwindCode[((CountOfCodes + 1) & ~1) - 1];
*   union {
*       OPTIONAL ULONG ExceptionHandler;
*       OPTIONAL ULONG FunctionEntry;
*   };
*   OPTIONAL ULONG ExceptionData[]; */
} UNWIND_INFO, *PUNWIND_INFO;

This structure, at a very high level, describes a non-leaf function in
terms of its prologue size and frame register usage. Furthermore, it
describes the way in which the stack is set up when the prologue for
this non-leaf function is executed.  This is provided through an array
of codes as accessed through the UnwindCode array.  This array is
composed of UNWIND_CODE structures which are defined as[8]:

typedef union _UNWIND_CODE {
    struct {
        UBYTE CodeOffset;
        UBYTE UnwindOp : 4;
        UBYTE OpInfo   : 4;
    };
    USHORT FrameOffset;
} UNWIND_CODE, *PUNWIND_CODE;

In order to properly unwind a frame, the exception dispatcher needs to
be aware of the amount of stack space allocated in that frame, the
locations of saved non-volatile registers, and anything else that has to
do with the stack.  This information is necessary in order to be able to
restore the caller's stack frame when an unwind operation occurs.  By
having the compiler keep track of this information at link time, it's
possible to emulate the unwind process by inverting the operations
described in the unwind code array for a given non-leaf function.

Aside from conveying stack frame set up, the UNWIND_INFO structure may
also describe exception handling information, such as the exception
handler that is to be called if an exception occurs.  This information
is conveyed through the ExceptionHandler and ExceptionData attributes of
the structure which exist only if the UNW_FLAGE_HANDLER flag is set in the
Flags field.

For more details on the format and use of these structures for unwinding
as well as a complete description of the unwind process, please refer to
the MSDN documentation[2].


4) Analysis Techniques

In order to improve the analysis of x64 binaries, it is important to try
to identify techniques that can aide in the identification or extraction
of useful information from the binary in an automated fashion.  This
chapter will focus on a handful of simple techniques that can be used to
better annotate or describe the behavior of an x64 binary.  These
techniques intentionally do not cover the analysis of code or data flow
operations. Such techniques are outside of the scope of this paper.


4.1) Exception Directory Enumeration

Given the explanation of the Exception Directory found within PE32+
images and its application to the exception dispatching process, it can
be seen that x64 binaries have a lot of useful meta-information stored
within them.  Given that this information is just sitting there waiting
to be used, it makes sense to try to take advantage of it in ways that
make it possible to better annotate or understand an x64 binary.  The
following subsections will describe different things that can be
discovered by digging deeper into the contents of the exception
directory.


4.1.1) Functions

One of the most obvious uses for the information stored in the exception
directory is that it can be used to discover all of the non-leaf
functions in a binary.  This is cool because it works regardless of
whether or not you actually have symbols for the binary, thus providing
an easy technique for identifying the majority of the functions in a
binary.  The process taken to do this is to simply enumerate the array
of IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY structures stored within the exception
directory.  The BeginAddress attribute of each entry marks the starting
point of a non-leaf function.  There's a catch, though.  Not all of the
runtime function entries are actually associated with the entry point of
a function.  The fact of the matter is that entries can also be
associated with various portions of an actual function where stack
modifications are deferred until necessary.  In these cases, the unwind
information associated with the runtime function entry is chained with
another runtime function entry.

The chaining of runtime function entries is documented as being
indicated through the UNW_FLAG_CHAININFO flag in the Flags attribute of
the UNWIND_INFO structure.  If this flag is set, the area of memory
immediately following the last UNWIND_CODE in the UNWIND_INFO structure
is an IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY structure.  The UnwindInfoAddress of
this structure indicates the chained unwind information.  Aside from
this, chaining can also be indicated through an undocumented flag that
is stored in the least-significant bit of the UnwindInfoAddress.  If the
least-significant bit is set, then it is implied that the runtime
function entry is directly chained to the IMAGE_RUNTIME_FUNCTION_ENTRY
structure that is found at the RVA conveyed by the UnwindInfoAddress
attribute with the least significant bit masked off.  The reason
chaining can be indicated in this fashion is because it is a requirement
that unwind information be four byte aligned.

With chaining in mind, it is safe to assume that a runtime function
entry is associated with the entry point of a function if its unwind
information is not chained.  This makes it possible to deterministically
identify the entry point of all of the non-leaf functions.  From there,
it should be possible to identify all of the leaf functions through
calls that are made to them by non-leaf functions.  This requires code
flow analysis, though.


4.1.2) Stack Frame Annotation

The unwind information associated with each non-leaf function
contains lots of useful meta-information about the structure of the
stack.  It provides information about the amount of stack space
allocated, the location of saved non-volatile registers, and whether or
not a frame register is used and what relation it has to the rest of the
stack.  This information is also described in terms of the location of
the instruction that actually performs the operation associated with the
task.  Take the following unwind information obtained through dumpbin
/unwindinfo as an example:


  0000060C 00006E50 00006FF0 000081FC  _resetstkoflw
    Unwind version: 1
    Unwind flags: None
    Size of prologue: 0x47
    Count of codes: 18
    Frame register: rbp
    Frame offset: 0x20
    Unwind codes:
      3C: SAVE_NONVOL, register=r15 offset=0x98
      38: SAVE_NONVOL, register=r14 offset=0xA0
      31: SAVE_NONVOL, register=r13 offset=0xA8
      2A: SAVE_NONVOL, register=r12 offset=0xD8
      23: SAVE_NONVOL, register=rdi offset=0xD0
      1C: SAVE_NONVOL, register=rsi offset=0xC8
      15: SAVE_NONVOL, register=rbx offset=0xC0
      0E: SET_FPREG, register=rbp, offset=0x20
      09: ALLOC_LARGE, size=0xB0
      02: PUSH_NONVOL, register=rbp


First and foremost, one can immediately see that the size of the
prologue used in the resetstkoflw function is 0x47 bytes.  This prologue
accounts for all of the operations described in the unwind codes array.
Furthermore, one can also tell that the function uses a frame pointer,
as conveyed through rbp, and that the frame pointer offset is 0x20 bytes
relative to the current stack pointer at the time the frame pointer
register is established.

As one would expect with an unwind operation, the unwind codes
themselves are stored in the opposite order of which they are executed.
This is necessary because of the effect on the stack each unwind code
can have.  If they are processed in the wrong order, then the unwind
operation will get invalid data.  For example, the value obtained
through a pop rbp instruction will differ depending on whether or not it
is done before or after an add rsp, 0xb0.

For the purposes of annotation, however, the important thing to keep in
mind is how all of the useful information can be extracted.  In this
case, it is possible to take all of the information the unwind codes
provide and break it down into a definition of the stack frame layout
for a function. This can be accomplished by processing the unwind codes
in the order that they would be executed rather than the order that they
appear in the array.  There's one important thing to keep in mind when
doing this.  Since unwind information can be chained, it is a
requirement that the full chain of unwind codes be processed in
execution order.  This can be accomplished by walking the chain of
unwind information and building an execution order list of all of the
unwind codes.

Once the execution order list of unwind codes is collected, the next
step is to simply enumerate each code, checking to see what operation it
performs and building out the stack frame across each iteration.  Prior
to enumerating each code, the state of the stack pointer should be
initialized to 0 to indicate an empty stack frame.  As data is allocated
on the stack, the stack pointer should be adjusted by the appropriate
amount.  The actions that need to be taken for each unwind operation
that directly effect the stack pointer are described below.

  1. UWOP_PUSH_NONVOL

     When a non-volatile register is pushed onto the stack, such as
     through a push rbp, the current stack pointer needs to be
     decremented by 8 bytes.

  2. UWOP_ALLOC_LARGE and UWOP_ALLOC_SMALL

     When stack space is allocated, the current stack pointer needs to
     be adjusted by the amount indicated.

  3. UWOP_SET_FPREG

     When a frame pointer is defined, its offset relative to the base of
     the stack should be saved using the current value of the stack
     pointer.


As the enumeration unwind codes occurs, it is also possible to annotate
the different locations on the stack where non-volatile registers are
preserved.  For instance, given the example unwind information above, it
is known that the R15 register is preserved at [rsp + 0x98].  Therefore,
we can annotate this location as [rsp + SavedR15].

Beyond annotating preserved register locations on the stack, we can also
annotate the instructions that perform operations that effect the stack.
For instance, when a non-volatile register is pushed, such as through
push rbp, we can annotate the instruction that performs that operation
as preserving rbp on the stack.  The location of the instruction that's
associated with the operation can be determined by taking the
BeginAddress associated with the unwind information and adding it to the
CodeOffset attribute of the UNWIND_CODE that is being processed.  It is
important to note, however, that the CodeOffset attribute actually
points to the first byte of the instruction immediately following the
one that performs the actual operation, so it is necessary to back track
in order to determine the start of the instruction that actually
performs the operation.

As a result of this analysis, one can take the prologue of the
resetstkoflw function and automatically convert it from:

.text:100006E50     push rbp
.text:100006E52     sub rsp, 0B0h
.text:100006E59     lea rbp, [rsp+0B0h+var_90]
.text:100006E5E     mov [rbp+0A0h], rbx
.text:100006E65     mov [rbp+0A8h], rsi
.text:100006E6C     mov [rbp+0B0h], rdi
.text:100006E73     mov [rbp+0B8h], r12
.text:100006E7A     mov [rbp+88h], r13
.text:100006E81     mov [rbp+80h], r14
.text:100006E88     mov [rbp+78h], r15


to a version with better annotation:


.text:100006E50     push rbp                      ; SavedRBP
.text:100006E52     sub rsp, 0B0h
.text:100006E59     lea rbp, [rsp+20h]
.text:100006E5E     mov [rbp+0A0h], rbx           ; SavedRBX
.text:100006E65     mov [rbp+98h+SavedRSI], rsi   ; SavedRSI
.text:100006E6C     mov [rbp+98h+SavedRDI], rdi   ; SavedRDI
.text:100006E73     mov [rbp+98h+SavedR12], r12   ; SavedR12
.text:100006E7A     mov [rbp+98h+SavedR13], r13   ; SavedR13
.text:100006E81     mov [rbp+98h+SavedR14], r14   ; SavedR14
.text:100006E88     mov [rbp+98h+SavedR15], r15   ; SavedR15


While such annotation may is not entirely useful to understanding
the behavior of the binary, it at least simplifies the process of
understanding the layout of the stack.


4.1.3) Exception Handlers

The unwind information structure for a non-leaf function also contains
useful information about the way in which exceptions within that
function should be dispatched.  If the unwind information associated
with a function has the UNW_FLAG_EHANDLER or UNW_FLAG_UHANDLER flag set,
then the function has an exception handler associated with it.  The
exception handler is conveyed through the ExceptionHandler attribute
which comes immediately after the array of unwind codes. This handler is
defined as being a language-specific handler for processing the
exception.  More specifically, the exception handler is specific to the
semantics associated with a given programming language, such as C or
C++[3].  For C, the language-specific exception handler is named
__C_specific_handler.

Given that all C functions that handle exceptions will have the same
exception handler, how does the function-specific code for handling an
exception actually get called?  For the case of C functions, the
function-specific exception handler is stored in a scope table in the
ExceptionData portion of the UNWIND_INFO structure.  Other languages may
have a different ExceptionData definition. This C scope table is defined
by the structures shown below:

typedef struct _C_SCOPE_TABLE_ENTRY {
    ULONG Begin;
    ULONG End;
    ULONG Handler;
    ULONG Target;
} C_SCOPE_TABLE_ENTRY, *PC_SCOPE_TABLE_ENTRY;

typedef struct _C_SCOPE_TABLE {
    ULONG NumEntries;
    C_SCOPE_TABLE_ENTRY Table[1];
} C_SCOPE_TABLE, *PC_SCOPE_TABLE;

The scope table entries describe the function-specific exception
handlers in relation to the specific areas of the function that they
apply to.  Each of the attributes of the C_SCOPE_TABLE_ENTRY is expressed
as an RVA.  The Target attribute defines the location to transfer
control to after the exception is handled.

The reason why all of the exception handler information is useful is
because it makes it possible to annotate a function in terms of what
exception handlers may be called during its execution.  It also makes it
possible to identify the exception handler functions that may otherwise
not be found due to the fact that they are executed indirectly.  For
example, the function CcAcquireByteRangeForWrite in ntoskrnl.exe can be
annotated in the following fashion:


.text:0000000000434520 ; Exception handler: __C_specific_handler
.text:0000000000434520 ; Language specific handler: sub_4C7F30
.text:0000000000434520
.text:0000000000434520 CcAcquireByteRangeForWrite proc near


4.2) Register Parameter Area Annotation

Given the requirement that the register parameter area be allocated on
the stack in the context of a function that calls other functions, it is
possible to statically annotate specific portions of the stack frame for
a function as being the location of the caller's register parameter
area.  Furthermore, the location of a given function's register
parameter area that is to be used by called functions can also be
annotated.

The location of the register parameter area is always at a fixed
location in a stack frame.  Specifically, it immediately follows the
return address on the stack.  If annotations are added for CallerRCX at
offset 0x8, CallerRDX at offset 0x10, CallerR8 at offset 0x18, and
CallerR9 at offset 0x20, it is possible to get a better view of the
stack frame for a given function.  It also makes it easier to understand
when and how this region of the stack is used by a function.  For
instance, the CcAcquireByteRangeForWrite function in ntoskrnl.exe makes
use of this area to store the values of the first four parameters:


.text:0000000000434520    mov     [rsp+CallerR9], r9
.text:0000000000434525    mov     dword ptr [rsp+CallerR8], r8d
.text:000000000043452A    mov     [rsp+CallerRDX], rdx
.text:000000000043452F    mov     [rsp+CallerRCX], rcx


5) Conclusion

This paper has presented a few basic approaches that can be used to
extract useful information from an x64 binary for the purpose of
analysis.  By analyzing the unwind information associated with
functions, it is possible to get a better understanding for how a
function's stack frame is laid out.  Furthermore, the unwind information
makes it possible to describe the relationship between a function and
its exception handler(s).  Looking toward the future, x64 is likely to
become the standard architecture given Microsoft's adoption of it as
their primary architecture.  With this in mind, coming up with
techniques to better automate the binary analysis process will become
more necessary.


Bibliography

[1] Microsoft Corporation.  ntimage.h. 
    3790 DDK header files.

[2] Microsoft Corporation.  Exception Handling (x64). 
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1eyas8tf(VS.80).aspx;
    accessed Apr 25, 2006.

[3] Microsoft Corporation.  The Language Specific Handler. 
    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/b6sf5kbd(VS.80).aspx;
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[4] Microsoft Corporation.  Parameter Passing. 
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# milw0rm.com [2006-06-09]