Resource & Load Config Directory

The upcoming 0.8.3 version of the Profiler features two new directories. Most of the work went into implementing an efficient model view controller for the Resource Directory tree.

Resource Directory

Last year I was notified by Ange Albertini that his resourceloop.exe sample crashed the CFF Explorer (by exhausting the stack). Recursion is one of the things to look after when parsing a file as mentioned in my speech about the security of non-executable files. The screenshot below shows Ange’s sample in the Profiler.

Recursive Resource Directory

The red marked Resource Directory Entry points back to the top-level Resource Directory and thus creates a recursion in the tree.

The Profiler is intended to offer complete support for the PE file format, this is why all directories will be supported. One of the directories missing in the CFF Explorer, for instance, is the Load Config (alias SafeSEH).

Load Config Directory

Another small addition is the smart address converter (VA/RVA/Offset). This action guesses the address which needs to be converted from the context. Jumping to a location in the hex view is usually a matter of Ctrl+R and twice Ctrl+Enter.

Address converter

Five directories are still missing: Security, Exception, Bound Import, Delay Import and .NET. The analysis of x86 PEs can already be implemented by adding basic support for the Security Directory. x64 needs Exception as well. Bound and Delay Import support will follow. .NET is the one which has least priority, but it won’t take much time to impelement.

The coming posts about Portable Executable will involve analysis and will be more interesting than this one. So stay tuned. 😉

Profiler 0.8.2 Demo

The first evaluation version of the Profiler is available.
SHA1: F1CA1B8B1BAE51977EE0BE827DC13E2E17BD81A3

Please note that the demo is subject to limitations:

  • only standard .doc files are supported (not even other Office file types)
  • embedded and referenced files can’t be inspected
  • only single file analysis is available
  • although the action system is working, some actions are not available

But now let’s see what features it does offer.

Demo 0

The file report and the hex view along with marked ranges.

Demo 1

The extraction of metadata.

Demo 2

The extraction of VBA code is also available.

Demo 3

And, of course, the inspection of the CFBF file format itself.

Demo 4

Other common features are also available. Enjoy!