WRK Compatibility With Windows Server 2003 SP2

Windows Research Kernel @ HPI

The deployment of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V based virtual machines to facilitate our operating system course assignments has brought up the issue that virtual machines have to run at least Windows Server 2003 SP2. Since the WRK documentation says that Windows Server 2003 SP1 is needed to run the kernel, the question remains whether the application binary interface (ABI) of those two versions are compatible. As others indicated (thanks for your comments 🙂) and evaluated on our server, the WRK appears to be able to run on Windows Server 2003 SP2. Nevertheless, I wanted to examine if at least the user-kernel mode ABI is compatible, for which I will give an answer in this post.

The Application Binary Interface for the WRK is determined through the system call table and its calling conventions (system call number in EAX, parameters on the stack). Since I don't assume that the calling conventions have changed, I concentrated on the system call table. If any of the system call numbers would differ, both versions are incompatible. On the Metasploit web site, you can find a comparison of system calls from various Windows versions. Unfortunately, system calls of Server 2003 SP2 are not listed in their table. It also appears that the site is not active anymore since the comparison ends with Windows Vista.

So, I had to find out the system call table myself. Fortunately, WinDbg is your friend in such a case. The user mode portion of a Windows system call is implemented in ntdll.dll and looks like this:

mov  eax,<system_call_number>
mov  edx,offset SharedUserData!SystemCallStub (<resolved_address>)
call dword ptr [edx]
ret  8

Since system calls are exported by ntdll.dll, we can scan through all the exported symbols starting with Nt. Then we can disassemble the instructions for each function. As shown in the snippet above, the first two instructions are enough to figure out, whether the symbol we found is actually a system call. To retrieve a disassembly of all exported symbols starting with Nt, I used the following WinDbg command:

.foreach /ps 5 (syscall {x ntdll!Nt*}) {u syscall L2}

The command x ntdll!Nt* examines all symbols from ntdll.dll that start with Nt. Each line is passed to a variable named syscall, for which we disassemble (u) the first two instructions (L2). Unfortunately, the .foreach command does not iterate line wise over an input stream but rather word wise. Since the x command delivers multiple words of information per symbol, the /ps switch tells .foreach to skip 5 of those (unnecessary) parameters. Finally, I wrote a small Python script to search through the generated output to identify all the included system calls and extract the system call number.

I performed this experiment twice: once on an SP1 and once on a SP2 machine. Here are the system call tables of these two versions:

Number Service Pack 1 Service Pack 2
0 NtAcceptConnectPort NtAcceptConnectPort
1 NtAccessCheck NtAccessCheck
2 NtAccessCheckAndAuditAlarm NtAccessCheckAndAuditAlarm
3 NtAccessCheckByType NtAccessCheckByType
4 NtAccessCheckByTypeAndAuditAlarm NtAccessCheckByTypeAndAuditAlarm
5 NtAccessCheckByTypeResultList NtAccessCheckByTypeResultList
6 NtAccessCheckByTypeResultListAnd-AuditAlarm NtAccessCheckByTypeResultListAnd-AuditAlarm
7 NtAccessCheckByTypeResultListAnd-AuditAlarmByHandle NtAccessCheckByTypeResultListAnd-AuditAlarmByHandle
8 NtAddAtom NtAddAtom
9 NtAddBootEntry NtAddBootEntry
10 NtAddDriverEntry NtAddDriverEntry
11 NtAdjustGroupsToken NtAdjustGroupsToken
12 NtAdjustPrivilegesToken NtAdjustPrivilegesToken
13 NtAlertResumeThread NtAlertResumeThread
14 NtAlertThread NtAlertThread
15 NtAllocateLocallyUniqueId NtAllocateLocallyUniqueId
16 NtAllocateUserPhysicalPages NtAllocateUserPhysicalPages
17 NtAllocateUuids NtAllocateUuids
18 NtAllocateVirtualMemory NtAllocateVirtualMemory
19 NtApphelpCacheControl NtApphelpCacheControl
20 NtAreMappedFilesTheSame NtAreMappedFilesTheSame
21 NtAssignProcessToJobObject NtAssignProcessToJobObject
22 NtCallbackReturn NtCallbackReturn
23 NtCancelDeviceWakeupRequest NtCancelDeviceWakeupRequest
24 NtCancelIoFile NtCancelIoFile
25 NtCancelTimer NtCancelTimer
26 NtClearEvent NtClearEvent
27 NtClose NtClose
28 NtCloseObjectAuditAlarm NtCloseObjectAuditAlarm
29 NtCompactKeys NtCompactKeys
30 NtCompareTokens NtCompareTokens
31 NtCompleteConnectPort NtCompleteConnectPort
32 NtCompressKey NtCompressKey
33 NtConnectPort NtConnectPort
34 NtContinue NtContinue
35 NtCreateDebugObject NtCreateDebugObject
36 NtCreateDirectoryObject NtCreateDirectoryObject
37 NtCreateEvent NtCreateEvent
38 NtCreateEventPair NtCreateEventPair
39 NtCreateFile NtCreateFile
40 NtCreateIoCompletion NtCreateIoCompletion
41 NtCreateJobObject NtCreateJobObject
42 NtCreateJobSet NtCreateJobSet
43 NtCreateKey NtCreateKey
44 NtCreateMailslotFile NtCreateMailslotFile
45 NtCreateMutant NtCreateMutant
46 NtCreateNamedPipeFile NtCreateNamedPipeFile
47 NtCreatePagingFile NtCreatePagingFile
48 NtCreatePort NtCreatePort
49 NtCreateProcess NtCreateProcess
50 NtCreateProcessEx NtCreateProcessEx
51 NtCreateProfile NtCreateProfile
52 NtCreateSection NtCreateSection
53 NtCreateSemaphore NtCreateSemaphore
54 NtCreateSymbolicLinkObject NtCreateSymbolicLinkObject
55 NtCreateThread NtCreateThread
56 NtCreateTimer NtCreateTimer
57 NtCreateToken NtCreateToken
58 NtCreateWaitablePort NtCreateWaitablePort
59 NtDebugActiveProcess NtDebugActiveProcess
60 NtDebugContinue NtDebugContinue
61 NtDelayExecution NtDelayExecution
62 NtDeleteAtom NtDeleteAtom
63 NtDeleteBootEntry NtDeleteBootEntry
64 NtDeleteDriverEntry NtDeleteDriverEntry
65 NtDeleteFile NtDeleteFile
66 NtDeleteKey NtDeleteKey
67 NtDeleteObjectAuditAlarm NtDeleteObjectAuditAlarm
68 NtDeleteValueKey NtDeleteValueKey
69 NtDeviceIoControlFile NtDeviceIoControlFile
70 NtDisplayString NtDisplayString
71 NtDuplicateObject NtDuplicateObject
72 NtDuplicateToken NtDuplicateToken
73 NtEnumerateBootEntries NtEnumerateBootEntries
74 NtEnumerateDriverEntries NtEnumerateDriverEntries
75 NtEnumerateKey NtEnumerateKey
76 NtEnumerateSystemEnvironment-ValuesEx NtEnumerateSystemEnvironment-ValuesEx
77 NtEnumerateValueKey NtEnumerateValueKey
78 NtExtendSection NtExtendSection
79 NtFilterToken NtFilterToken
80 NtFindAtom NtFindAtom
81 NtFlushBuffersFile NtFlushBuffersFile
82 NtFlushInstructionCache NtFlushInstructionCache
83 NtFlushKey NtFlushKey
84 NtFlushVirtualMemory NtFlushVirtualMemory
85 NtFlushWriteBuffer NtFlushWriteBuffer
86 NtFreeUserPhysicalPages NtFreeUserPhysicalPages
87 NtFreeVirtualMemory NtFreeVirtualMemory
88 NtFsControlFile NtFsControlFile
89 NtGetContextThread NtGetContextThread
90 NtGetDevicePowerState NtGetDevicePowerState
91 NtGetPlugPlayEvent NtGetPlugPlayEvent
92 NtGetWriteWatch NtGetWriteWatch
93 NtImpersonateAnonymousToken NtImpersonateAnonymousToken
94 NtImpersonateClientOfPort NtImpersonateClientOfPort
95 NtImpersonateThread NtImpersonateThread
96 NtInitializeRegistry NtInitializeRegistry
97 NtInitiatePowerAction NtInitiatePowerAction
98 NtIsProcessInJob NtIsProcessInJob
99 NtIsSystemResumeAutomatic NtIsSystemResumeAutomatic
100 NtListenPort NtListenPort
101 NtLoadDriver NtLoadDriver
102 NtLoadKey NtLoadKey
103 NtLoadKey2 NtLoadKey2
104 NtLoadKeyEx NtLoadKeyEx
105 NtLockFile NtLockFile
106 NtLockProductActivationKeys NtLockProductActivationKeys
107 NtLockRegistryKey NtLockRegistryKey
108 NtLockVirtualMemory NtLockVirtualMemory
109 NtMakePermanentObject NtMakePermanentObject
110 NtMakeTemporaryObject NtMakeTemporaryObject
111 NtMapUserPhysicalPages NtMapUserPhysicalPages
112 NtMapUserPhysicalPagesScatter NtMapUserPhysicalPagesScatter
113 NtMapViewOfSection NtMapViewOfSection
114 NtModifyBootEntry NtModifyBootEntry
115 NtModifyDriverEntry NtModifyDriverEntry
116 NtNotifyChangeDirectoryFile NtNotifyChangeDirectoryFile
117 NtNotifyChangeKey NtNotifyChangeKey
118 NtNotifyChangeMultipleKeys NtNotifyChangeMultipleKeys
119 NtOpenDirectoryObject NtOpenDirectoryObject
120 NtOpenEvent NtOpenEvent
121 NtOpenEventPair NtOpenEventPair
122 NtOpenFile NtOpenFile
123 NtOpenIoCompletion NtOpenIoCompletion
124 NtOpenJobObject NtOpenJobObject
125 NtOpenKey NtOpenKey
126 NtOpenMutant NtOpenMutant
127 NtOpenObjectAuditAlarm NtOpenObjectAuditAlarm
128 NtOpenProcess NtOpenProcess
129 NtOpenProcessToken NtOpenProcessToken
130 NtOpenProcessTokenEx NtOpenProcessTokenEx
131 NtOpenSection NtOpenSection
132 NtOpenSemaphore NtOpenSemaphore
133 NtOpenSymbolicLinkObject NtOpenSymbolicLinkObject
134 NtOpenThread NtOpenThread
135 NtOpenThreadToken NtOpenThreadToken
136 NtOpenThreadTokenEx NtOpenThreadTokenEx
137 NtOpenTimer NtOpenTimer
138 NtPlugPlayControl NtPlugPlayControl
139 NtPowerInformation NtPowerInformation
140 NtPrivilegeCheck NtPrivilegeCheck
141 NtPrivilegeObjectAuditAlarm NtPrivilegeObjectAuditAlarm
142 NtPrivilegedServiceAuditAlarm NtPrivilegedServiceAuditAlarm
143 NtProtectVirtualMemory NtProtectVirtualMemory
144 NtPulseEvent NtPulseEvent
145 NtQueryAttributesFile NtQueryAttributesFile
146 NtQueryBootEntryOrder NtQueryBootEntryOrder
147 NtQueryBootOptions NtQueryBootOptions
148 NtQueryDebugFilterState NtQueryDebugFilterState
149 NtQueryDefaultLocale NtQueryDefaultLocale
150 NtQueryDefaultUILanguage NtQueryDefaultUILanguage
151 NtQueryDirectoryFile NtQueryDirectoryFile
152 NtQueryDirectoryObject NtQueryDirectoryObject
153 NtQueryDriverEntryOrder NtQueryDriverEntryOrder
154 NtQueryEaFile NtQueryEaFile
155 NtQueryEvent NtQueryEvent
156 NtQueryFullAttributesFile NtQueryFullAttributesFile
157 NtQueryInformationAtom NtQueryInformationAtom
158 NtQueryInformationFile NtQueryInformationFile
159 NtQueryInformationJobObject NtQueryInformationJobObject
160 NtQueryInformationPort NtQueryInformationPort
161 NtQueryInformationProcess NtQueryInformationProcess
162 NtQueryInformationThread NtQueryInformationThread
163 NtQueryInformationToken NtQueryInformationToken
164 NtQueryInstallUILanguage NtQueryInstallUILanguage
165 NtQueryIntervalProfile NtQueryIntervalProfile
166 NtQueryIoCompletion NtQueryIoCompletion
167 NtQueryKey NtQueryKey
168 NtQueryMultipleValueKey NtQueryMultipleValueKey
169 NtQueryMutant NtQueryMutant
170 NtQueryObject NtQueryObject
171 NtQueryOpenSubKeys NtQueryOpenSubKeys
172 NtQueryOpenSubKeysEx NtQueryOpenSubKeysEx
173 NtQueryPerformanceCounter NtQueryPerformanceCounter
174 NtQueryQuotaInformationFile NtQueryQuotaInformationFile
175 NtQuerySection NtQuerySection
176 NtQuerySecurityObject NtQuerySecurityObject
177 NtQuerySemaphore NtQuerySemaphore
178 NtQuerySymbolicLinkObject NtQuerySymbolicLinkObject
179 NtQuerySystemEnvironmentValue NtQuerySystemEnvironmentValue
180 NtQuerySystemEnvironmentValueEx NtQuerySystemEnvironmentValueEx
181 NtQuerySystemInformation NtQuerySystemInformation
182 NtQuerySystemTime NtQuerySystemTime
183 NtQueryTimer NtQueryTimer
184 NtQueryTimerResolution NtQueryTimerResolution
185 NtQueryValueKey NtQueryValueKey
186 NtQueryVirtualMemory NtQueryVirtualMemory
187 NtQueryVolumeInformationFile NtQueryVolumeInformationFile
188 NtQueueApcThread NtQueueApcThread
189 NtRaiseException NtRaiseException
190 NtRaiseHardError NtRaiseHardError
191 NtReadFile NtReadFile
192 NtReadFileScatter NtReadFileScatter
193 NtReadRequestData NtReadRequestData
194 NtReadVirtualMemory NtReadVirtualMemory
195 NtRegisterThreadTerminatePort NtRegisterThreadTerminatePort
196 NtReleaseMutant NtReleaseMutant
197 NtReleaseSemaphore NtReleaseSemaphore
198 NtRemoveIoCompletion NtRemoveIoCompletion
199 NtRemoveProcessDebug NtRemoveProcessDebug
200 NtRenameKey NtRenameKey
201 NtReplaceKey NtReplaceKey
202 NtReplyPort NtReplyPort
203 NtReplyWaitReceivePort NtReplyWaitReceivePort
204 NtReplyWaitReceivePortEx NtReplyWaitReceivePortEx
205 NtReplyWaitReplyPort NtReplyWaitReplyPort
206 NtRequestDeviceWakeup NtRequestDeviceWakeup
207 NtRequestPort NtRequestPort
208 NtRequestWaitReplyPort NtRequestWaitReplyPort
209 NtRequestWakeupLatency NtRequestWakeupLatency
210 NtResetEvent NtResetEvent
211 NtResetWriteWatch NtResetWriteWatch
212 NtRestoreKey NtRestoreKey
213 NtResumeProcess NtResumeProcess
214 NtResumeThread NtResumeThread
215 NtSaveKey NtSaveKey
216 NtSaveKeyEx NtSaveKeyEx
217 NtSaveMergedKeys NtSaveMergedKeys
218 NtSecureConnectPort NtSecureConnectPort
219 NtSetBootEntryOrder NtSetBootEntryOrder
220 NtSetBootOptions NtSetBootOptions
221 NtSetContextThread NtSetContextThread
222 NtSetDebugFilterState NtSetDebugFilterState
223 NtSetDefaultHardErrorPort NtSetDefaultHardErrorPort
224 NtSetDefaultLocale NtSetDefaultLocale
225 NtSetDefaultUILanguage NtSetDefaultUILanguage
226 NtSetDriverEntryOrder NtSetDriverEntryOrder
227 NtSetEaFile NtSetEaFile
228 NtSetEvent NtSetEvent
229 NtSetEventBoostPriority NtSetEventBoostPriority
230 NtSetHighEventPair NtSetHighEventPair
231 NtSetHighWaitLowEventPair NtSetHighWaitLowEventPair
232 NtSetInformationDebugObject NtSetInformationDebugObject
233 NtSetInformationFile NtSetInformationFile
234 NtSetInformationJobObject NtSetInformationJobObject
235 NtSetInformationKey NtSetInformationKey
236 NtSetInformationObject NtSetInformationObject
237 NtSetInformationProcess NtSetInformationProcess
238 NtSetInformationThread NtSetInformationThread
239 NtSetInformationToken NtSetInformationToken
240 NtSetIntervalProfile NtSetIntervalProfile
241 NtSetIoCompletion NtSetIoCompletion
242 NtSetLdtEntries NtSetLdtEntries
243 NtSetLowEventPair NtSetLowEventPair
244 NtSetLowWaitHighEventPair NtSetLowWaitHighEventPair
245 NtSetQuotaInformationFile NtSetQuotaInformationFile
246 NtSetSecurityObject NtSetSecurityObject
247 NtSetSystemEnvironmentValue NtSetSystemEnvironmentValue
248 NtSetSystemEnvironmentValueEx NtSetSystemEnvironmentValueEx
249 NtSetSystemInformation NtSetSystemInformation
250 NtSetSystemPowerState NtSetSystemPowerState
251 NtSetSystemTime NtSetSystemTime
252 NtSetThreadExecutionState NtSetThreadExecutionState
253 NtSetTimer NtSetTimer
254 NtSetTimerResolution NtSetTimerResolution
255 NtSetUuidSeed NtSetUuidSeed
256 NtSetValueKey NtSetValueKey
257 NtSetVolumeInformationFile NtSetVolumeInformationFile
258 NtShutdownSystem NtShutdownSystem
259 NtSignalAndWaitForSingleObject NtSignalAndWaitForSingleObject
260 NtStartProfile NtStartProfile
261 NtStopProfile NtStopProfile
262 NtSuspendProcess NtSuspendProcess
263 NtSuspendThread NtSuspendThread
264 NtSystemDebugControl NtSystemDebugControl
265 NtTerminateJobObject NtTerminateJobObject
266 NtTerminateProcess NtTerminateProcess
267 NtTerminateThread NtTerminateThread
268 NtTestAlert NtTestAlert
269 NtTraceEvent NtTraceEvent
270 NtTranslateFilePath NtTranslateFilePath
271 NtUnloadDriver NtUnloadDriver
272 NtUnloadKey NtUnloadKey
273 NtUnloadKey2 NtUnloadKey2
274 NtUnloadKeyEx NtUnloadKeyEx
275 NtUnlockFile NtUnlockFile
276 NtUnlockVirtualMemory NtUnlockVirtualMemory
277 NtUnmapViewOfSection NtUnmapViewOfSection
278 NtVdmControl NtVdmControl
279 NtWaitForDebugEvent NtWaitForDebugEvent
280 NtWaitForMultipleObjects NtWaitForMultipleObjects
281 NtWaitForSingleObject NtWaitForSingleObject
282 NtWaitHighEventPair NtWaitHighEventPair
283 NtWaitLowEventPair NtWaitLowEventPair
284 NtWriteFile NtWriteFile
285 NtWriteFileGather NtWriteFileGather
286 NtWriteRequestData NtWriteRequestData
287 NtWriteVirtualMemory NtWriteVirtualMemory
288 NtYieldExecution NtYieldExecution
289 NtCreateKeyedEvent NtCreateKeyedEvent
290 NtOpenKeyedEvent NtOpenKeyedEvent
291 NtReleaseKeyedEvent NtReleaseKeyedEvent
292 NtWaitForKeyedEvent NtWaitForKeyedEvent
293 NtQueryPortInformationProcess NtQueryPortInformationProcess
294 NtGetCurrentProcessorNumber NtGetCurrentProcessorNumber
295 NtWaitForMultipleObjects32 NtWaitForMultipleObjects32

As you can see in the table above, both versions offer the same amount of system calls, which is why, from an ABI perspective, the WRK can run on both operating system versions. Unfortunately, there is one uncertainty left: the WRK links against modules such as the HAL. If there are any dependencies broken, which I think is pretty unlikely, you may encounter unexpected crashes or unpredictable behavior.

If you have any comments or hints about how to resolve the issue, please let us know.

Comments

2 Responses to "WRK Compatibility With Windows Server 2003 SP2"

  1. Wack0 on June 8th, 2011 02:05

    Have you tried copying the correct HAL (included in the WRK) to %windir%\system32 in the VM ?

  2. Alexander Schmidt on June 27th, 2011 10:43

    Yes we did. However, the HAL provided is the HAL of Windows Server 2003 SP1. Still we don't know if there are any broken dependencies between the old HAL and newer components of SP2.