How to access the PEB of another process with python ctypes

Question

Until now, I have this piece of code (I know its ugly, but this isn\'t the point right now)

I cant figure out how to issue the following sys cals and build the right

Answer 1

I only posted this as a solution since comments are too small and can't be easily formatted.

First, want to emphasize what's on the [MS.Docs]: NtQueryInformationProcess function:

NtQueryInformationProcess may be altered or unavailable in future versions of Windows. Applications should use the alternate functions listed in this topic.

...

The NtQueryInformationProcess function and the structures that it returns are internal to the operating system and subject to change from one release of Windows to another. To maintain the compatibility of your application, it is better to use public functions mentioned in the description of the ProcessInformationClass parameter instead.

If you do use NtQueryInformationProcess, access the function through run-time dynamic linking. This gives your code an opportunity to respond gracefully if the function has been changed or removed from the operating system. Signature changes, however, may not be detectable.

This function has no associated import library. You must use the LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress functions to dynamically link to Ntdll.dll.

Now, if you still want to use this func, you have to define (recursively) all the structures that are used by it. Some of them can be found at: [MS.Docs]: _PEB structure or [MS.Docs]: _PEB_LDR_DATA structure, but you'll find them in VStudio's winternl.h. Again: they may be altered in future versions of Windows.

Also: always check the return codes when dealing with WinAPIs.

I have defined some (not all) of the structures in Python; I also had to change some of the existing ones (note that if a member has an incorrect offset from the struct's beginning it will be messed up):

import ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes


class LIST_ENTRY(ctypes.Structure):
    pass

LIST_ENTRY._fields = [
    ("Flink", ctypes.POINTER(LIST_ENTRY)),
    ("Blink", ctypes.POINTER(LIST_ENTRY)),
]


class UNICODE_STRING(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ("Length", wintypes.USHORT),
        ("MaximumLength", wintypes.USHORT),
        ("Buffer", ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_wchar)),
    ]


class LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ("Reserved1", ctypes.c_void_p * 2),
        ("InMemoryOrderLinks", LIST_ENTRY),
        ("Reserved2", ctypes.c_void_p * 2),
        ("DllBase", ctypes.c_void_p),
        ("EntryPoint", ctypes.c_void_p),
        ("Reserved3", ctypes.c_void_p),
        ("FullDllName", UNICODE_STRING),
        ("Reserved4", wintypes.BYTE * 8),
        ("Reserved5", ctypes.c_void_p * 3),
        ("Reserved6", ctypes.c_void_p),
        ("TimeDateStamp", wintypes.ULONG),
    ]


class PEB_LDR_DATA(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ("Reserved1", wintypes.BYTE * 8),
        ("Reserved2", ctypes.c_void_p * 3),
        ("InMemoryOrderModuleList", LIST_ENTRY),
    ]


class PEB(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ("Reserved1", wintypes.BYTE * 2),
        ("BeingDebugged", wintypes.BYTE),
        ("Reserved2", wintypes.BYTE),
        ("Reserved3", ctypes.c_void_p * 2),
        ("Ldr", ctypes.POINTER(PEB_LDR_DATA)),
        ("ProcessParameters", ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_int)),
        ("Reserved4", wintypes.BYTE * 104),
        ("Reserved5", ctypes.c_void_p * 52),
        ("PPS_POST_PROCESS_INIT_ROUTINE", ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_int)),
        ("Reserved6", wintypes.BYTE * 128),
        ("Reserved7", ctypes.c_void_p),
        ("SessionId", ctypes.c_ulong),
    ]


class PROCESS_BASIC_INFORMATION(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = [
        ("Reserved1", ctypes.c_void_p),
        ("PebBaseAddress", ctypes.POINTER(PEB)),
        ("Reserved2", ctypes.c_void_p * 2),
        ("UniqueProcessId", ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_ulong)),
        ("Reserved3", ctypes.c_void_p),
    ]

At the end, I want to add that most likely any data can be obtained using other (supported) methods (functions that are part of public API), even if they might call this func internally.

Answer 2

It bears repeating that NtQueryInformationProcess is a native system call, which is discouraged in Windows programming. Microsoft doesn't provide an import library for ntdll.dll, so the only way to call its exported functions is dynamically via GetProcAddress. That's of course how ctypes works, so calling native NTAPI functions is no more or less difficult from Python. The problems are the lack of official support and documentation, and that NT data structures, APIs, and available information classes are all subject to change.

Note also that querying the ProcessBasicInformation retrieves the address of the 64-bit PEB when called from a 64-bit process. Thus when querying a WOW64 32-bit process from a 64-bit process, you'll only see the native 64-bit modules ntdll.dll, wow64.dll, wow64win.dll, and wow64cpu.dll. Here's an answer that provides a technique to find the address of the 32-bit PEB by using a magic offset from the 64-bit TEB to the 32-bit TEB, which has a pointer to the 32-bit PEB. But of course this implementation detail can change at any time, breaking code that depends on it.

The following example has the ctypes definitions that are required to query and use ProcessBasicInformation for a given process that has the same architecture (i.e. native 64-bit or WOW64 32-bit). It includes a class that demonstrates usage and provides properties for the process ID, session ID, image path, command line, and the paths for loaded modules.

The example uses a RemotePointer subclass of ctypes._Pointer, along with an RPOINTER factory function. This class overrides __getitem__ to facilitate dereferencing a pointer value in the address space of another process. The index key is a tuple of the form index, handle[, size]. The optional size parameter (in bytes) is useful for sized strings such as NTAPI UNICODE_STRING, e.g. ustr.Buffer[0, hProcess, usrt.Length]. Null-terminated strings are not supported, since ReadProcessMemory requires a sized buffer.

The logic for walking the loader data is in the private _modules_iter method, which walks the loaded modules using the in-memory-order linked list. Note that InMemoryOrderModuleList links to the InMemoryOrderLinks field of the LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY structure, and so on for each link in the list. The module iterator has to adjust the base address for each entry by the offset to this field. In the C API this would use the CONTAINING_RECORD macro.

The ProcessInformation constructor defaults to querying the current process if no process ID or handle is provided. If the call status is an error or warning (i.e. negative NTSTATUS), it calls NtError to get an instance of OSError, or WindowsError prior to 3.3.

I have, but did not include, a more elaborate version of NtError that calls FormatMessage to get a formatted error message, using ntdll.dll as the source module. I can update the answer to include this version upon request.

The example was tested in Windows 7 and 10, using 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Python 2.7 and 3.5. For the remote process test, the subprocess module is used to start a 2nd Python instance. An event handle is passed to the child process for synchronization. If the parent process doesn't wait for the child process to finish loading and set the event, then the child's loader data may not be completely initialized when read.

import ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes

ntdll = ctypes.WinDLL('ntdll')
kernel32 = ctypes.WinDLL('kernel32', use_last_error=True)

# WINAPI Definitions

PROCESS_VM_READ           = 0x0010
PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION = 0x0400

ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE = 0x0006
ERROR_PARTIAL_COPY   = 0x012B

PULONG = ctypes.POINTER(wintypes.ULONG)
ULONG_PTR = wintypes.LPVOID
SIZE_T = ctypes.c_size_t

def _check_bool(result, func, args):
    if not result:
        raise ctypes.WinError(ctypes.get_last_error())
    return args

kernel32.ReadProcessMemory.errcheck = _check_bool
kernel32.ReadProcessMemory.argtypes = (
    wintypes.HANDLE,  # _In_  hProcess
    wintypes.LPCVOID, # _In_  lpBaseAddress
    wintypes.LPVOID,  # _Out_ lpBuffer
    SIZE_T,           # _In_  nSize
    ctypes.POINTER(SIZE_T))  # _Out_ lpNumberOfBytesRead

kernel32.CloseHandle.errcheck = _check_bool
kernel32.CloseHandle.argtypes = (wintypes.HANDLE,)

kernel32.GetCurrentProcess.restype = wintypes.HANDLE
kernel32.GetCurrentProcess.argtypes = ()

kernel32.OpenProcess.errcheck = _check_bool
kernel32.OpenProcess.restype = wintypes.HANDLE
kernel32.OpenProcess.argtypes = (
   wintypes.DWORD, # _In_ dwDesiredAccess
   wintypes.BOOL,  # _In_ bInheritHandle
   wintypes.DWORD) # _In_ dwProcessId

class RemotePointer(ctypes._Pointer):
    def __getitem__(self, key):
        # TODO: slicing
        size = None
        if not isinstance(key, tuple):
            raise KeyError('must be (index, handle[, size])')
        if len(key) > 2:
            index, handle, size = key
        else:
            index, handle = key
        if isinstance(index, slice):
            raise TypeError('slicing is not supported')
        dtype = self._type_
        offset = ctypes.sizeof(dtype) * index
        address = PVOID.from_buffer(self).value + offset
        simple = issubclass(dtype, ctypes._SimpleCData)
        if simple and size is not None:
            if dtype._type_ == wintypes.WCHAR._type_:
                buf = (wintypes.WCHAR * (size // 2))()
            else:
                buf = (ctypes.c_char * size)()
        else:
            buf = dtype()
        nread = SIZE_T()
        kernel32.ReadProcessMemory(handle,
                                   address,
                                   ctypes.byref(buf),
                                   ctypes.sizeof(buf),
                                   ctypes.byref(nread))
        if simple:
            return buf.value
        return buf

    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
        # TODO: kernel32.WriteProcessMemory
        raise TypeError('remote pointers are read only')

    @property
    def contents(self):
        # a handle is required
        raise NotImplementedError

_remote_pointer_cache = {}
def RPOINTER(dtype):
    if dtype in _remote_pointer_cache:
        return _remote_pointer_cache[dtype]
    name = 'RP_%s' % dtype.__name__
    ptype = type(name, (RemotePointer,), {'_type_': dtype})
    _remote_pointer_cache[dtype] = ptype
    return ptype

# NTAPI Definitions

NTSTATUS = wintypes.LONG
PVOID = wintypes.LPVOID
RPWSTR = RPOINTER(wintypes.WCHAR)
PROCESSINFOCLASS = wintypes.ULONG

ProcessBasicInformation   = 0
ProcessDebugPort          = 7
ProcessWow64Information   = 26
ProcessImageFileName      = 27
ProcessBreakOnTermination = 29

STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL         = NTSTATUS(0xC0000001)
STATUS_INFO_LENGTH_MISMATCH = NTSTATUS(0xC0000004).value
STATUS_INVALID_HANDLE       = NTSTATUS(0xC0000008).value
STATUS_OBJECT_TYPE_MISMATCH = NTSTATUS(0xC0000024).value

class UNICODE_STRING(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = (('Length',        wintypes.USHORT),
                ('MaximumLength', wintypes.USHORT),
                ('Buffer',        RPWSTR))

class LIST_ENTRY(ctypes.Structure):
    pass

RPLIST_ENTRY = RPOINTER(LIST_ENTRY)

LIST_ENTRY._fields_ = (('Flink', RPLIST_ENTRY),
                       ('Blink', RPLIST_ENTRY))

class LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = (('Reserved1',          PVOID * 2),
                ('InMemoryOrderLinks', LIST_ENTRY),
                ('Reserved2',          PVOID * 2),
                ('DllBase',            PVOID),
                ('EntryPoint',         PVOID),
                ('Reserved3',          PVOID),
                ('FullDllName',        UNICODE_STRING),
                ('Reserved4',          wintypes.BYTE * 8),
                ('Reserved5',          PVOID * 3),
                ('CheckSum',           PVOID),
                ('TimeDateStamp',      wintypes.ULONG))

RPLDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY = RPOINTER(LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY)

class PEB_LDR_DATA(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = (('Reserved1',               wintypes.BYTE * 8),
                ('Reserved2',               PVOID * 3),
                ('InMemoryOrderModuleList', LIST_ENTRY))

RPPEB_LDR_DATA = RPOINTER(PEB_LDR_DATA)

class RTL_USER_PROCESS_PARAMETERS(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = (('Reserved1',     wintypes.BYTE * 16),
                ('Reserved2',     PVOID * 10),
                ('ImagePathName', UNICODE_STRING),
                ('CommandLine',   UNICODE_STRING))

RPRTL_USER_PROCESS_PARAMETERS = RPOINTER(RTL_USER_PROCESS_PARAMETERS)
PPS_POST_PROCESS_INIT_ROUTINE = PVOID

class PEB(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = (('Reserved1',              wintypes.BYTE * 2),
                ('BeingDebugged',          wintypes.BYTE),
                ('Reserved2',              wintypes.BYTE * 1),
                ('Reserved3',              PVOID * 2),
                ('Ldr',                    RPPEB_LDR_DATA),
                ('ProcessParameters',      RPRTL_USER_PROCESS_PARAMETERS),
                ('Reserved4',              wintypes.BYTE * 104),
                ('Reserved5',              PVOID * 52),
                ('PostProcessInitRoutine', PPS_POST_PROCESS_INIT_ROUTINE),
                ('Reserved6',              wintypes.BYTE * 128),
                ('Reserved7',              PVOID * 1),
                ('SessionId',              wintypes.ULONG))

RPPEB = RPOINTER(PEB)

class PROCESS_BASIC_INFORMATION(ctypes.Structure):
    _fields_ = (('Reserved1',       PVOID),
                ('PebBaseAddress',  RPPEB),
                ('Reserved2',       PVOID * 2),
                ('UniqueProcessId', ULONG_PTR),
                ('Reserved3',       PVOID))

def NtError(status):
    import sys
    descr = 'NTSTATUS(%#08x) ' % (status % 2**32,)
    if status & 0xC0000000 == 0xC0000000:
        descr += '[Error]'
    elif status & 0x80000000 == 0x80000000:
        descr += '[Warning]'
    elif status & 0x40000000 == 0x40000000:
        descr += '[Information]'
    else:
        descr += '[Success]'
    if sys.version_info[:2] < (3, 3):
        return WindowsError(status, descr)
    return OSError(None, descr, None, status)

NtQueryInformationProcess = ntdll.NtQueryInformationProcess
NtQueryInformationProcess.restype = NTSTATUS
NtQueryInformationProcess.argtypes = (
    wintypes.HANDLE,  # _In_      ProcessHandle
    PROCESSINFOCLASS, # _In_      ProcessInformationClass
    PVOID,            # _Out_     ProcessInformation
    wintypes.ULONG,   # _In_      ProcessInformationLength
    PULONG)           # _Out_opt_ ReturnLength

class ProcessInformation(object):
    _close_handle = False
    _closed = False
    _module_names = None

    def __init__(self, process_id=None, handle=None):
        if process_id is None and handle is None:
            handle = kernel32.GetCurrentProcess()
        elif handle is None:
            handle = kernel32.OpenProcess(PROCESS_VM_READ |
                                          PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION,
                                          False, process_id)
            self._close_handle = True
        self._handle = handle
        self._query_info()
        if process_id is not None and self._process_id != process_id:
            raise NtError(STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL)

    def __del__(self, CloseHandle=kernel32.CloseHandle):
        if self._close_handle and not self._closed:
            try:
                CloseHandle(self._handle)
            except WindowsError as e:
                if e.winerror != ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE:
                    raise
            self._closed = True

    def _query_info(self):
        info = PROCESS_BASIC_INFORMATION()
        handle = self._handle
        status = NtQueryInformationProcess(handle,
                                           ProcessBasicInformation,
                                           ctypes.byref(info),
                                           ctypes.sizeof(info),
                                           None)
        if status < 0:
            raise NtError(status)
        self._process_id = info.UniqueProcessId
        self._peb = peb = info.PebBaseAddress[0, handle]
        self._params = peb.ProcessParameters[0, handle]
        self._ldr = peb.Ldr[0, handle]

    def _modules_iter(self):
        headaddr = (PVOID.from_buffer(self._peb.Ldr).value +
                    PEB_LDR_DATA.InMemoryOrderModuleList.offset)
        offset = LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY.InMemoryOrderLinks.offset
        pentry = self._ldr.InMemoryOrderModuleList.Flink
        while pentry:
            pentry_void = PVOID.from_buffer_copy(pentry)
            if pentry_void.value == headaddr:
                break
            pentry_void.value -= offset
            pmod = RPLDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY.from_buffer(pentry_void)
            mod = pmod[0, self._handle]
            yield mod
            pentry = LIST_ENTRY.from_buffer(mod, offset).Flink

    def update_module_names(self):
        names = []
        for m in self._modules_iter():
            ustr = m.FullDllName
            name = ustr.Buffer[0, self._handle, ustr.Length]
            names.append(name)
        self._module_names = names

    @property
    def module_names(self):
        if self._module_names is None:
            self.update_module_names()
        return self._module_names

    @property
    def process_id(self):
        return self._process_id

    @property
    def session_id(self):
        return self._peb.SessionId

    @property
    def image_path(self):
        ustr = self._params.ImagePathName
        return ustr.Buffer[0, self._handle, ustr.Length]

    @property
    def command_line(self):
        ustr = self._params.CommandLine
        buf = ustr.Buffer[0, self._handle, ustr.Length]
        return buf

Example:

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import os
    import sys
    import subprocess
    import textwrap

    class SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES(ctypes.Structure):
        _fields_ = (('nLength',              wintypes.DWORD),
                    ('lpSecurityDescriptor', wintypes.LPVOID),
                    ('bInheritHandle',       wintypes.BOOL))
        def __init__(self, *args, **kwds):
            super(SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES, self).__init__(*args, **kwds)
            self.nLength = ctypes.sizeof(self)

    def test_remote(use_pid=True, show_modules=False):
        sa = SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES(bInheritHandle=True)
        hEvent = kernel32.CreateEventW(ctypes.byref(sa), 0, 0, None)
        try:
            script = textwrap.dedent(r"""
            import sys
            import ctypes
            kernel32 = ctypes.WinDLL('kernel32')
            kernel32.SetEvent(%d)
            sys.stdin.read()""").strip() % hEvent
            cmd = '"%s" -c "%s"' % (sys.executable, script)
            proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
                                    close_fds=False)
            try:
                kernel32.WaitForSingleObject(hEvent, 5000)
                if use_pid:
                    pi = ProcessInformation(proc.pid)
                else:
                    pi = ProcessInformation(handle=int(proc._handle))
                assert pi.process_id == proc.pid
                assert pi.image_path == sys.executable
                assert pi.command_line == cmd
                assert pi.module_names[0] == sys.executable
                if show_modules:
                    print('\n'.join(pi.module_names))
            finally:
                proc.terminate()
        finally:
            kernel32.CloseHandle(hEvent)

    print('Test 1: current process')
    pi = ProcessInformation()
    assert os.getpid() == pi.process_id
    assert pi.image_path == pi.module_names[0]
    print('Test 2: remote process (Handle)')
    test_remote(use_pid=False)
    print('Test 3: remote process (PID)')
    test_remote(show_modules=True)

Output in Windows 10, using 64-bit Python 3.5:

Test 1: current process
Test 2: remote process (Handle)
Test 3: remote process (PID)
C:\Program Files\Python35\python.exe
C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
C:\Windows\system32\KERNEL32.DLL
C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll
C:\Program Files\Python35\python35.dll
C:\Program Files\Python35\VCRUNTIME140.dll
C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ucrtbase.dll
C:\Windows\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\WS2_32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\sechost.dll
C:\Windows\system32\RPCRT4.dll
C:\Windows\system32\NSI.dll
C:\Windows\system32\msvcrt.dll
C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CRYPTBASE.DLL
C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\bcryptPrimitives.dll
C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\CRYPTSP.dll
C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\bcrypt.dll
C:\Windows\system32\rsaenh.dll
C:\Program Files\Python35\python3.dll
C:\Program Files\Python35\DLLs\_ctypes.pyd
C:\Windows\system32\ole32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\combase.dll
C:\Windows\system32\GDI32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\USER32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\OLEAUT32.dll
C:\Windows\system32\IMM32.DLL
C:\Windows\system32\MSCTF.dll