Software Diagnostics Institute

Available in PDF format from Software Diagnostics Services

This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized selected articles from Software Diagnostics Institute (DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org) and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog, DumpAnalysis.org/blog) about software diagnostics, root cause analysis, debugging, crash and hang dump analysis, software trace and log analysis written in August 2020 - 14 August 2021 for software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows and Linux platforms, quality assurance engineers testing software, technical support, escalation and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, security and vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts. This volume is fully cross-referenced with volumes 1 – 13 and features:

- 7 new crash dump analysis patterns with selected downloadable example memory dumps
- New crash dump analysis case study not previously published anywhere
- 14 new software trace and log analysis patterns
- Introduction to cloud analysis patterns
- Introduction to the fractal nature of software traces and logs
- Introduction to the general architecture of analysis pattern networks
- Lists of recommended books

Product information:

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 14
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24
• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: OpenTask (August 2021)
• ISBN-13: 978-1-912636-14-3

Table of Contents

Years ago, I bought the book in Russia whose title is “Literature of Formal Constraints: Form and Games from Antiquity to Present Days” by Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya if I translate it to English. Such literary techniques and patterns are also known under the term constrained writing. The reason why this book caught my attention in the bookshop is that at that time, I was developing software narratology as a foundation of trace and log analysis patterns. So, I planned to mine it for pattern writing. However, due to other pressures, I put it in a reading list until very recently, when reading a preface to Exercises in Programming Style, Second Edition, by Cristina Videira Lopes (ISBN-13: 978-0367350208), I learned about the Oulipo movement (writing under constraints). I immediately realized that software traces and logs are software narratives under constraints. I plan to explore such constraints by providing creative examples of trace and log statements and messages. As a metanarrative template, I chose a variation of narrative from Exercises in Style book by Raymond Queneau:

The software narrator “S” is a rule-based system tracing process, and it notices a long-running process that had loaded hat.dll and got into resource contention difficulties with another process. Two hours later, the software narrator notices the same process and a debugger process that gives some advice regarding the functionality of an extra GUI button.

Another variation I chose is the frequent message found in logs on the “access denied” theme. Such constraints may be personal and organizational preferences and styles, programming language, execution environment, and technology stack limitations, different coding phases (development, maintenance, early vs. mature code), external constraints such as source code scope, tracing and logging configuration and rules, timing, the need for a quick debugging fix, or understanding program state and behavior.

In writing these exercises in tracing style, I also plan to reference trace and log analysis patterns where appropriate.

I add links to variations as soon as they are published. I also consider them a part of the modeling activities I do while working on the Writing Bad Code book.

This month, www.DumpAnalysis.org turns 15 (F). Initially, in March 2006, it started as Crash Dump Analysis and Debugging Forum (now frozen at https://www.dumpanalysis.org/forum/ where old posts are available). In August 2006, it became Crash Dump Analysis Blog, later moved to https://www.dumpanalysis.org/blog/ and renamed to Software Diagnostics Library as only posts about analysis patterns became added to it. When the blog was moved, the root URL (https://dumpanalysis.org/) became Crash Dump Analysis Portal, later renamed to Software Diagnostics Institute in 2012.

The new Revised Edition is available!

Available in PDF format from Software Diagnostics Services

This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized articles from Software Diagnostics Institute and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog) written in July 2009 - January 2010. In addition to various corrections, this major revision updates relevant links and removes obsolete references. Some articles are preserved for historical reasons. Most of the content, especially memory analysis and trace and log analysis pattern languages, is still relevant today and for the foreseeable future. The output of WinDbg commands is also remastered to include color highlighting. Crash dump analysis pattern names are also corrected to reflect the continued expansion of the catalog. The fourth volume features:

- 15 new crash dump analysis patterns
- 13 new pattern interaction case studies
- 10 new trace analysis patterns
- 6 new Debugware patterns and case study
- Workaround patterns
- Updated checklist
- Fully cross-referenced with Volumes 1-3
- Memory visualization tutorials
- Memory space art

The primary audience for Memory Dump Analysis Anthology reference volumes is: software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows platforms, technical support, escalation, and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, quality assurance engineers testing software on Windows platforms, security and vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts. Trace and log analysis articles may be of interest to users of other platforms.

Product information:

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 4, Revised Edition
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Publisher: OpenTask (March 2021)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24
• PDF: 423 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1912636242

Table of Contents

Back cover features memory space art image: Internal Process Combustion.

We wrote a short post about added complexities of virtualization almost 15 years ago and then about orbifold memory space (named cloud memory space initially) 10 years ago, reflecting cloud internals as a multi-VM/bare metal or multi-process distributed system.

At that time, memory dump analysis patterns were added for several types of memory space, including fiber bundle and manifold memory spaces, and we also held a webinar on cloud memory dump analysis:

In addition to the process/kernel dichotomy, managed space abstracts runtime environments such as .NET CLR.
This picture of complete and cloud spaces is somewhat simplified as it does not reflect the complexities of hypervisor types and some nested spaces, as in Hyperdumps.

Also, at that time, trace and log analysis patterns were being extensively developed and later split into general and special analysis patterns, resulting in the current overall picture:

Memory dump types we can get from VM and traditional OS concepts such as threads and processes that span memory spaces are shown in this picture (spanning means that information about them can be found in all those memory dumps and associated spaces):

If we consider native cloud space as additional abstraction beyond the simple collection of memory spaces, we get the new native cloud memory space with corresponding cloud equivalents for traditional OS concepts:

The advent of container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes provides a similar hierarchy of concepts with containers corresponding to threads as units of execution, pods to processes as resource containers, kernel to control plane and kubelets, and operators to device drivers:

From the traditional memory perspective, Kubernetes concepts cut across the same spaces since they are implemented as collections of processes:

Our next step here is to adapt memory analysis pattern language to native cloud diagnostics and cloud problem analysis and provide analysis pattern specializations. The other part of software diagnostics, trace analysis pattern language, naturally extends to native cloud analysis, but from container environments, we recently discerned a few new log analysis patterns we plan to publish soon.

For the orchestration abstraction, we may add cluster space for nodes and pods in place of complete space and replace orbifold memory space with the native cloud space:

In the diagram above, nodes, containers, and pods have a different conceptual meaning instead of memory. They are more like spaces of relations between various objects/structures than spaces of objects/structures like memory spaces.

Now, having all these new abstract spaces, the next step is to consider this diagram where we replaced memory analysis patterns altogether with cloud analysis patterns:

Memory analysis patterns are not gone but are at the lower level of abstraction, where individual spaces for cloud analysis patterns may require analysis of specific memory spaces if necessary. It is possible to represent both abstractions as Trace Quilt:

This description is preliminary and may have some modifications in the future. The corresponding analysis pattern language catalog is being developed now.

Click on an individual book to see its description and table of contents:

This 1,600-page dense reference set includes:

1. Encyclopedia of Crash Dump Analysis Patterns, Third Edition
2. Trace, Log, Text, Narrative: An Analysis Pattern Reference for Data Mining, Diagnostics, Anomaly Detection, Fourth Edition

You can buy this reference set from Software Diagnostics Services with a discount.

The following direct links can be used to order the book now:

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Also available in PDF format from Software Diagnostics Services.

This is a collection of Software Diagnostics Services webinar transcripts about memory dump analysis methodology developed by Software Diagnostics Institute. Includes 6 seminars on physical memory dump analysis, cloud memory dump analysis, patterns, tools, processes and best practices for software trace and memory dump analysis, pattern-oriented software forensics, a pattern language for memory forensics, and mobile software diagnostics.

Now includes Fundamentals of Physical Memory Analysis: Anniversary Edition.

• Title: Principles of Memory Dump Analysis: The Collected Seminars
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Services
• Publisher: OpenTask (September 2014)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• Hardback: 284 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1906717667

The following direct links can be used to order the book now:

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Also available for sale in PDF format from Software Diagnostics Services.

This is a collection of Software Diagnostics Services webinar transcripts about pattern-oriented software diagnostics developed by Software Diagnostics Institute. Includes 9 seminars on pattern-driven software problem solving, software narratology, pattern-driven software diagnostics, systemic software diagnostics, pattern-based software diagnostics, philosophy of software diagnostics, victimware, malware narratives and pattern-oriented network trace analysis.

• Title: Software Diagnostics: The Collected Seminars
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Services
• Publisher: OpenTask (September 2013)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• Hardback: 302 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1908043641

The following direct links can be used to order the book now:

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Available for SkillSoft Books24x7 subscribers

Also available for sale in PDF and EPUB formats from Software Diagnostics Services.

The full transcript of Software Diagnostics Services training with 12 step-by-step exercises. Learn how to analyse app crashes and freezes, navigate through process core memory dump space and diagnose corruption, memory leaks, CPU spikes, blocked threads, deadlocks, wait chains, and much more. We use a unique and innovative pattern-driven analysis approach to speed up the learning curve. The training consists of practical step-by-step exercises using GDB and LLDB debuggers highlighting more than 30 memory analysis patterns diagnosed in Intel x64 process core memory dumps. The training also includes source code of modelling applications written in Xcode environment, a catalogue of relevant patterns from Software Diagnostics Institute, and an overview of relevant similarities and differences between Windows and Mac OS X user space memory dump analysis useful for engineers with Wintel background. Audience: Software technical support and escalation engineers, system administrators, software developers, security professionals and quality assurance engineers.

• Title: Accelerated Mac OS X Core Dump Analysis, Second Edition: Training Course Transcript with GDB and LLDB Practice Exercises
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Services
• Publisher: OpenTask (March 2014)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• Paperback: 406 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1908043719

Table of Contents
Amazon Reviews for the previous edition

This training course is a Linux version of the previous Practical Foundations of Windows Debugging, Disassembly, Reversing book. It also complements Accelerated Linux Core Dump Analysis training course.

Although the book skeleton is the same as its Windows predecessor, the content was revised entirely because of a different operating system, debugger (GDB), toolchain (GCC, assembler, linker), application binary interface, and even an assembly language flavor, AT&T.

The course is useful for:

• Software technical support and escalation engineers, cloud security engineers, SRE, and DevSecOps
• Software engineers coming from JVM background
• Software testers
• Engineers coming from non-Linux environments, for example, Windows or Mac OS X
• Linux C/C++ software engineers without assembly language background
• Security researchers without assembly language background
• Beginners learning Linux software reverse engineering techniques

This book can also be used as an x64 assembly language and Linux debugging supplement for relevant undergraduate-level courses.

Product information:

• Title: Practical Foundations of Linux Debugging, Disassembling, Reversing: Training Course
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Services
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• PDF: 174 pages
• Publisher: OpenTask (January 2021)
• ISBN-13: 978-1-912636-34-1

Table of Contents

Click on an individual book to see its description and table of contents:

Pattern-oriented software diagnostics, uniquely systematic and multidisciplinary, is the new approach in a long time. Described as the unified field theory of software diagnostics, It encompasses and expands the whole field, offers a wider range of software diagnostic possibilities, gives a novel lens to software diagnosis including specific guidelines for the dauntingly complex world of software problems. This 2,500-page reference set should be on the desk of every software engineer and software support problem solver. It includes:

1. Encyclopedia of Crash Dump Analysis Patterns, Third Edition
2. Trace, Log, Text, Narrative: An Analysis Pattern Reference for Data Mining, Diagnostics, Anomaly Detection, Fourth Edition
3. Theoretical Software Diagnostics: Collected Articles, Third Edition
4. Software Diagnostics: The Collected Seminars
5. Fundamentals of Physical Memory Analysis: Anniversary Edition
6. Principles of Memory Dump Analysis: The Collected Seminars

You can buy this reference set from Software Diagnostics Services with a discount.

The system of diagnostic analysis patterns from Software Diagnostic Institute was created for humans and may appear too complicated for machines, although AI, machine learning, and data processing techniques may be used in individual computer-assisted pattern implementations. Fortunately, in theory, deep learning allows functional processing units of arbitrary complexity, and we can reuse its metaphors to propose a similar architecture but where all neurons in a layer perform different complex functions and use the same complex input. The output includes unmodified input plus the result of each neuron computation (enrichment). Some neurons may not produce any output given the set of data.

Concrete analysis patterns as techniques (algorithms) to uncover diagnostic indicators can be represented as generalized complex data processing “neurons” interconnected like artificial neural networks. Input data is a software execution artifact (or a set of them) such as a software trace and log, network trace, or memory snapshot. Each analysis pattern (AP) accesses the whole artifact data (no input neurons encoding data vector elements). Each AP processing enriches input data by adding another derivative artifact, artifact transformation, and the list of found diagnostic indicators (signs). Each AP from the next iteration processes the updated input data. Stateful AP may also store some other information for the next iterations (with or without data enrichment), and stateless AP may serve the role of pure transformation functions (operators). In summary, AP layers are identical but are fed with enriched artifacts for each iteration (backpropagation metaphor).

Links between AP from consecutive layers correspond to analysis and problem pattern sequences (schemas) known in advance (they may be the same between each consecutive pair of layers) and may also be built dynamically during iterations if correlations are discovered. Such links may also correspond to interfaces between AP components that query information from the previous iteration or ask for analysis services. The analysis report generator (“output neuron”) may use the link “weight” matrix of discovered AP dependencies for further insight. Flagged AP “neurons” in the diagram below represent found diagnostic indicators and concrete problem patterns to be used either in subsequent iterations or during analysis report generation. We call this method and its corresponding architecture Analysis Pattern Network (APN).

AP may be implemented using machine learning (ML), rule-based (RB), human-based (HB), and transformation-based (TB) techniques.

Different iterations may strategically use different implementation techniques based on pattern interconnections and enriched artifacts; for example, an AP during the first iteration used artifact transformation, during the second iteration used rule-based machine learning algorithm, and the third iteration required human introspection.

APN is an architectural pattern itself and is now added to our catalog of software diagnostics architecture patterns.

Self-similarity of Trace Shapes across sequences of trace runs, Activity Regions, trace messages, and parts of Multidimensional Messages with the later adding fractional dimensions suggests analogies with fractals.

The following direct links can be used to order the third edition of the book:

Buy PDF from Leanpub

Also available in PDF format from Software Diagnostics Technology and Services

Contains reprinted articles in full color (including 200 figures) from 13 volumes of Memory Dump Analysis Anthology related to pattern-oriented software diagnostics with additional comments showing the historical development of this autonomous and distinctive discipline over the last 14 years. In addition to 10 new articles, the third edition includes updated threads of thinking, the list of mathematical concepts, and notes’ references.

Product information:

• Title: Theoretical Software Diagnostics: Collected Articles, Third Edition
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14.0
• Paperback: 357 pages
• Publisher: OpenTask (October 2020)
• ISBN-13: 978-1912636334

Table of Contents

1. Producers: Software Diagnostics Institute, Library, and various artifacts from humans and software.
2. The one-thread writer to the distributed append-only log of analysis patterns and other topics: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology Volumes.
3. Consumers: Encyclopedia of Crash Dump Analysis Patterns, Trace and Log Analysis, Theoretical Software Diagnostics.

Various mathematical analogies and metaphors inspired memory and log analysis patterns and some concepts of software diagnostics and software data analysis. We list them in alphabetical order:

• 2-categories
• Adjoints, see also
• Braid groups
• Braids, see also
• Cartesian product
• Categories
• Causal sets, see also, and also
• Coalgebras, functors, 2-categories
• Cones
• Continuous and discontinuous functions
• Cover
• Critical points, Morse theory
• Curves
• Defect group of a block
• Derivatives, partial derivatives, see also
• Dessin d’enfant
• Dimension
• Direct sums and products of sets, see also
• Divergence
• Dual categories
• Duality
• Dynamical systems
• Edge contraction
• Equivalence relation
• Fiber bundles, see also
• Fibrations
• Fixed points
• Flag, filtration
• Foliation
• Fourier series
• Functor
• Fuzzy sets
• Galois connections
• Graphs
• Hasse diagrams
• Homotopy, see also
• Injections, surjections, bijections
• Intervals
• Jaccard index
• Lattices
• Manifolds, gluing
• Maps, see also
• Minimal surface
• Moduli space
• Monoids
• Motives, see also
• Motivic integration
• Nerve complex
• Open and closed sets
• Operads
• Orbifolds
• Order duality
• Ordinals
• Phase
• Piecewise linear functions
• Poincaré map, Poincaré section
• Posets
• Powerset
• Presheaves
• Projective spaces
• Quotient groups
• Quotient space
• Retraction
• Riemann surfaces, multivalued functions
• Residue
• Rough sets
• Scalar field
• Semigroups
• Sheaves
• Significant digits
• Simplicial complex
• Step functions
• Structure Sheaf
• Surfaces
• Tensors
• Topology
• Ultrametric spaces, p-adic numbers
• Variadic functions
• Whiskering, also

The links to their definitions and examples can be found in the corresponding references. We give the original references to Memory Dump Analysis Anthology where possible, but most of them can also be found in Pattern-Oriented Software Diagnostics Reference books.

Available in PDF format from Software Diagnostics Services

This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized selected articles from Software Diagnostics Institute (DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org) and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog, DumpAnalysis.org/blog) about software diagnostics, root cause analysis, debugging, crash and hang dump analysis, software trace and log analysis written in December 2019 - July 2020 for software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows and Linux platforms, quality assurance engineers testing software, technical support, escalation and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, security and vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts. This volume is fully cross-referenced with volumes 1 – 12 and features:

- 9 new crash dump analysis patterns with selected downloadable example memory dumps
- 15 new software trace and log analysis patterns
- Introduction to diagnostic analysis gestures
- Introduction to the category-theoretic view of debugging
- Lists of recommended category theory, number theory, and cybersecurity books

Product information:

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 13
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24
• Paperback: 197 pages
• Publisher: OpenTask (August 2020)
• ISBN-13: 978-1-912636-13-6

Table of Contents

Imperative vs. functional programming:

The new Revised Edition is available!

Available in PDF and EPUB formats from Software Diagnostics Services

This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized articles from Software Diagnostics Institute and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog) written in October 2008 - June 2009. In addition to various corrections, this major revision updates relevant links and removes obsolete references. Some articles are preserved for historical reasons. Most of the content, especially memory analysis and trace and log analysis pattern languages, is still relevant today and for the foreseeable future. The output of WinDbg commands is also remastered to include color highlighting. Crash dump analysis pattern names are also corrected to reflect the continued expansion of the catalog.

Compared to the second revised volume, the third revised volume features:

• 15 new crash dump analysis patterns
• 29 new pattern interaction case studies
• Trace analysis patterns
• Fully cross-referenced with Volume 1 and Volume 2
• New appendixes

The primary audience for Memory Dump Analysis Anthology reference volumes is: software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows platforms, technical support, escalation, and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, quality assurance engineers testing software on Windows platforms, security and vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts. Trace and log analysis articles may be of interest to users of other platforms.

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 3, Revised Edition
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Publisher: OpenTask (July 2020)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24
• PDF + EPUB: 394 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1912636235

Table of Contents

First, we introduce some definitions:

A diagnostic analysis action is a user interface action, a command, a technique, a diagnostic algorithm, a diagnostic analysis pattern.

A space of tools is a collection of physical and virtual (mental, imaginary) tools at some physical or virtual (mathematical) distance from each other.

A configuration of diagnostic analysis actions is a directed graph (digraph) in a topological space of tools or a diagram in a category theory sense (Visual Category Theory Brick by Brick, Part 3).

A diagnostic analysis gesture (diag) is a configuration of diagnostic actions across the space of tools and time, resulting in a workflow of diagnostic analysis actions.

A diagnostic analysis hypergesture is a gesture of diagnostic analysis gestures, a transformation of one gesture into another, between sets of tools, similar to porting diagnostic analysis patterns from one platform to another, for example, from Windows to Linux, or from one domain to another, for example, from logs to texts. We can view diagnostic hypergestures as diagnostic gesture patterns.

The “gesture” metaphor stems from the fact that despite recent automation efforts, the diagnostic analysis process is still manual when it requires substantial domain expertise. We still use various tools, graphical and command line (hand movements), and move in cyberspace. So, it is natural to combine all these physical and virtual movements into some abstract space path. There’s also a question of diagnostic performance (in terms of achieving diagnostic goals) and repertoire. Diagnostic gestures also include tool improvisation, data exploration, action experimentation, and aesthetics as well (coolness, for example). Some gestures can be used to discover analysis patterns.

Different mathematical approaches can be used to formalize Diags and HyperDiags; for example, category theory like it was done for musical gestures and homotopy theory for hypergestures (see The Topos of Music III: Gestures: Musical Multiverse Ontologies, Second Edition). For various perspectives on general gestures, please also refer to the opening chapters of The Topos of Music III.

Initially, years ago, we proposed thinking of diagnostic tools as arrows in a category of troubleshooting where objects are diagnostic artifact states (Category Theory and Troubleshooting, Theoretical Software Diagnostics, Second Edition, p. 105). Diags approach considers tools as objects.

Second, diagnostic gestures (and gestures in general) may be described using narrative forms, and we propose some new terminology here.

A logue is a narrative of diagnostic actions which that can be viewed as a langue from theoretical linguistics. It is similar to logs in their structure and allows the application of the whole apparatus of software narratology and trace analysis patterns similar to higher-order pattern narratives.

The idea stems from viewing catalogs of analysis patterns as cat-a-logs, a category of logs (and other categories of diagnostic artifacts and their analysis patterns in general), and the difference in catalog and catalogue spellings.

Finally, we also have dia-logs (dia-logues), dialogic actions between diagnostic analysis actors and logs (logues).

New Anniversary Edition is now available.

The following direct links can be used to order the book now:

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The previous edition is also available for SkillSoft Books24x7 subscribers

This short book is a full transcript of the Software Diagnostics Services seminar about physical memory analysis on desktop and server Windows platforms (a revised version of the previous seminars on complete crash and hang memory dump analysis). Topics include memory acquisition and its tricks, user vs. kernel vs. physical memory space, fiber bundle space, challenges of physical memory analysis, common WinDbg commands, memory analysis patterns and their classification, common mistakes, a hands-on WinDbg analysis example with logs, and a guide to further study. For this new edition, slides and their transcript text have been significantly revised, links and references have been checked and updated, and the whole WinDbg analysis session has been redone for Windows 10.

• Title: Fundamentals of Physical Memory Analysis: Anniversary Edition
• Author: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Services
• Publisher: OpenTask (June 2020)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• Paperback: 58 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1912636808

Slides

The new Revised Edition is available!

The following direct links can be used to order the English edition now:

Buy PDF and EPUB from Leanpub

Buy Kindle Print Replica from Amazon

Also available in PDF and EPUB formats from Software Diagnostics Services.

This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized articles from Software Diagnostics Institute and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog) written in January - September 2008. In addition to various corrections, this major revision updates relevant links and removes obsolete references. Some articles are preserved for historical reasons. Most of the content, especially memory analysis pattern language, is still relevant today and for the foreseeable future. The output of WinDbg commands is also remastered to include color highlighting. Crash dump analysis pattern names are also corrected to reflect the continued expansion of the catalog.

Compared to the first revised volume, the second revised volume features:

• 44 more crash dump analysis patterns
• Pattern interaction and case studies
• Fully cross-referenced with Volume 1
• New appendixes

The primary audience for Memory Dump Analysis Anthology reference volumes is: software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows platforms, technical support, escalation, and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, quality assurance engineers testing software on Windows platforms, security and vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts.

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 2, Revised Edition
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Publisher: OpenTask (May 2020)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24
• PDF: 463 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1912636228

Table of Contents

What is debugging? There are many definitions out there, including analogies with forensic science, victimology, and criminology. There are also definitions involving set theory. They focus on the content of debugging artifacts such as source code and its execution paths and values. We give a different definition based on debugging actions and using category theory. We also do not use mathematical notation in what follows.

What is the category theory? We do not give a precise mathematical definition based on axioms but provide a conceptual one as a worldview while omitting many details. A category is a collection of objects and associated arrows between them. Every pair of objects has a collection of arrows between them, which can be empty. So an arrow must have a source and a target object. Several sequential arrows can be composed into one arrow. We can even consider arrows as objects themselves, but this is another category with its new arrows between arrows as objects. If we consider categories as objects and arrows between these categories as objects, we have another category. So we can quickly build complex models out of that.

Can we build a conceptual model of debugging using objects and arrows? Yes, and it even has a particular name in category theory: a presheaf. So, debugging is a presheaf. To answer a question, what is a presheaf, we start constructing our debugging model focusing on objects and arrows. To avoid using mathematical language that may obscure debugging concepts, we use LEGO® bricks because we can feel the objects and arrows, and most importantly, arrows as objects (see visual category theory for more details). This hands-on activity also reminds us that debugging is a construction process.
 
Debugging activity involves time. We, therefore, construct a time arrow that represents software execution:

 
We pick two Time objects representing different execution times:

 
In our Time category, an arrow means the flow of time. It can also be some indexing scheme for time events or other objects (a different category) that represents some repeated activity. Please note that an arrow has specific object indicators assigned to it. Different object pairs have different arrows. It is not apparent when we use black and white mathematical notation and diagrams.

 
We can associate with Time objects some external objects, for example, memory snapshots, or some other software execution states, variables, execution artifacts, or even parts of the same artifact:

 
Therefore, we have a possible mapping from the Time category to a possible category of software execution artifacts that we name DA+TA (abbreviated [memory] dump artifacts + trace [log] artifacts). DA+TA objects are simply some sets useful for debugging. The mapping between different categories is usually called a functor in category theory. It maps objects from the source category to objects in the target category. It is itself an arrow in the category that includes source and target categories as objects:

However, we forgot to designate arrows in the target DA+TA category. Of course, a different choice of arrows makes different categories. We choose arrows that represent debugging activities such as going back in time when trying to find the root cause, such as walking a stack trace. It is a reverse activity:

 
A functor that maps arrows to reversed arrows is called a contravariant functor in category theory:

 
Such a contravariant functor from a category to the category of some sets is called a presheaf. Now we look at debugging using software traces and logs as another target category of sets. With our Time category objects, we associate different log messages:
 

When we use log and trace files for debugging we also go back in time trying to find the root cause message (or a set of messages) or some other clues:

 
Again, we have a presheaf, a contravariant functor that maps our Time category objects to sets of messages:

 
So, we see again, that debugging is a presheaf, a contravariant functor that maps software execution categories such as a category of time instants to sets of software execution artifacts.
Trace and log analysis pattern catalog includes another example of the source and target categories candidates for a debugging presheaf, Trace Presheaf analysis pattern that maps trace messages to memory snapshots (sets of memory cells or some other state information).

Presheaves can be mapped to each other, for example, from a presheaf of logs to a presheaf of associated source code fragments or stack traces, and this is called a natural transformation in category theory. It also fits with natural debugging when we go back in logs and, at the same time, browse source code or some other associated information sets.

This article is also available in PDF format.

In the past, we used LEGO® bricks to represent some simple data structures and software logs, and recently, more complex data structures and algorithms, so all that transformed into a series of manageable short books (increments) to facilitate earlier adoption and feedback. Software diagnostics is an integral part of software construction and software post-construction problem-solving, and we aim to provide real hands-on training from general concepts and architecture to low-level details.

Increment 1 (ISBN-13: 978-1912636709) is currently available on Leanpub and Amazon Kindle Store. It covers memory, memory addresses, pointers, program loading, kernel and user spaces, virtual process space, memory isolation, virtual and physical memory, memory paging, memory dump types.

Book Sample
Pointers (previously unpublished)

In the past, we used LEGO® bricks to represent some simple data structures and software logs, so all that transformed into a series of manageable short books (epochs) to facilitate earlier adoption and feedback. Machine learning is now an integral part of pattern-oriented software diagnostics, and we aim to provide real hands-on training from general concepts and architecture to low-level details and mathematics.

Epoch 1 (ISBN-13: 978-1912636501) is currently available on Leanpub and Amazon Kindle Store. It covers the simplest linear associative network, proposes a brick notation for algebraic expressions, shows required calculus derivations, and illustrates gradient descent.

Book Sample

The new Revised Edition is available!

The following direct links can be used to order the English edition now:

Buy PDF and EPUB from Leanpub

Buy Kindle Print Replica from Amazon

Also available in PDF and EPUB formats from Software Diagnostics Services.

This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized articles from Software Diagnostics Institute and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog) written in August 2006 - December 2007. This major revision updates tool information and links with ones relevant for Windows 10 and removes obsolete references. Some articles are preserved for historical reasons, and some are updated to reflect the debugger engine changes. The output of WinDbg commands is also remastered to include color highlighting. Most of the content, especially memory analysis pattern language, is still relevant today and for the foreseeable future. Crash dump analysis pattern names are also corrected to reflect the continued expansion of the catalog.

The primary audience for Memory Dump Analysis Anthology reference volumes is: software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows platforms, technical support, escalation, and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, quality assurance engineers testing software on Windows platforms, security and vulnerability researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts.

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 1, Revised Edition
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Publisher: OpenTask (April 2020)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24
• PDF: 713 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1912636211

Table of Contents

The original Korean edition is also available:

The following direct links can be used to order the Korean edition now:

Acorn (The Korean translation publisher) or Kyobo book or Yes24.com

A partial classification of memory analysis patterns from Software Diagnostics Library pattern catalogue:

• Space/Mode
• Memory dump type
• Hooksware
• Wait Chain Patterns
• DLL Link Patterns
• Memory Consumption Patterns
• Dynamic Memory Corruption Patterns
• Deadlock and Livelock Patterns
• Contention Patterns
• Stack Overflow Patterns
• .NET / CLR / Managed Space Patterns
• Stack Trace Patterns
• Symbol Patterns
• Exception Patterns
• Meta-Memory Dump Patterns
• Module Patterns
• Optimization Patterns
• Thread Patterns
• Process Patterns
• Executive Resource Patterns
• Falsity and Coincidence Patterns
• RPC, LPC and ALPC Patterns
• Hidden Artifact Patterns
• Pointer Patterns
• Frame Patterns
• CPU Consumption Patterns

The following direct links can be used to order the book:

Buy Kindle print replica edition from Amazon

Also available in PDF format from Software Diagnostics Services

This reference volume consists of revised, edited, cross-referenced, and thematically organized selected articles from Software Diagnostics Institute (DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org) and Software Diagnostics Library (former Crash Dump Analysis blog, DumpAnalysis.org/blog) about software diagnostics, root cause analysis, debugging, crash and hang dump analysis, software trace and log analysis written in December 2018 - November 2019 for software engineers developing and maintaining products on Windows and Linux platforms, quality assurance engineers testing software, technical support, escalation and site reliability engineers dealing with complex software issues, security researchers, reverse engineers, malware and memory forensics analysts. This volume is fully cross-referenced with volumes 1 – 11 and features:

- 6 new crash dump analysis patterns with selected downloadable example memory dumps
- 2 pattern interaction case studies including Python crash dump analysis
- 16 new software trace and log analysis patterns
- Introduction to software pathology
- Introduction to graphical representation of software traces and logs
- Introduction to space-like narratology as application of trace and log analysis patterns to image analysis
- Introduction to analysis pattern duality
- Introduction to machine learning square and its relationship with the state of the art of pattern-oriented diagnostics
- Historical reminiscences on 10 years of trace and log analysis patterns and software narratology
- Introduction to baseplate representation of chemical structures
- WinDbg notes
- Using C++ as a scripting tool
- List of recommended Linux kernel space books
- Volume index of memory dump analysis patterns
- Volume index of trace and log analysis patterns

Product information:

• Title: Memory Dump Analysis Anthology, Volume 12
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Software Diagnostics Institute
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 22.86 x 15.24
• Paperback: 179 pages
• Publisher: OpenTask (December 2019)
• ISBN-13: 978-1-912636-12-9

Table of Contents

This book is planned for 2020 (ISBN: 978-1912636099).

This book is planned for early 2020 (ISBN: 978-1906717759).