prealloc (reserve pre-allocated pools)

Description of the 'prealloc' command in HyperDbg.

Command

prealloc

Syntax

prealloc [Type (string)] [Count (hex)]

Description

Reserves a specified number of pre-allocated pools. This command is mainly used to assist in the pre-allocation of pools for instant events.

In some cases, you need to reserve multiple pools to be used in vmx-root mode. This command will allocate these pools in PASSIVE_LEVEL.

HyperDbg tries to minimize the request for this command by allocating pools whenever your system is in PASSIVE_LEVEL.

Parameters

[Type (string)]

The type of pool(s) to be reserved.

Type
thread-interception	Used for storing details of processes with thousands of threads
monitor	!monitor command's extra pages
epthook	!epthook command's extra pages
epthook2	!epthook2 command's extra pages
regular-event	Regular instant events
big-event	Big instant events
regular-safe-buffer	Regular event safe buffers ($buffer) for instant events
big-safe-buffer	Big event safe buffers ($buffer) for instant events

[Count (hex)]

Number of pool(s) to be allocated and reserved.

Examples

Imagine we want to pre-allocate and reserve 0x10 number of pools for the '!monitor' command. If we're operating in the Debugger Mode, first we need to reserve and allocate pools for a regular event, then we need to allocate the same amount of pools for the memory monitor EPT hooks.

0: kHyperDbg> prealloc regular-event 10
the requested pools are allocated and reserved

0: kHyperDbg> prealloc monitor 10
the requested pools are allocated and reserved

Again if we want to pre-allocate and reserve 0x10 number of pools for the '!epthook' command. If we're operating in the Debugger Mode, first we need to reserve and allocate pools for a regular event, then we need to allocate the same amount of pools for the memory epthook EPT hooks.

0: kHyperDbg> prealloc regular-event 10
the requested pools are allocated and reserved

0: kHyperDbg> prealloc epthook 10
the requested pools are allocated and reserved

Assume we need to pre-allocate and reserve a safe buffer for an event in the Debugger Mode. We can use the following command.

0: kHyperDbg> prealloc regular-safe-buffer 1
the requested pools are allocated and reserved

IOCTL

This function works by calling DeviceIoControl with IOCTL = IOCTL_RESERVE_PRE_ALLOCATED_POOLS, you have to send it in the following structure.

typedef struct _DEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND
{
    DEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND_TYPE Type;
    UINT64                         Count;
    UINT32                         KernelStatus;

} DEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND, *PDEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND;

You should only fill the Type and Count of the above structure when the IOCTL returns from the kernel, other parts of this structure are filled with appropriate KernelStatus.

The Type can be from the following enum:

typedef enum _DEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND_TYPE
{
    DEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND_TYPE_MONITOR,
    DEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND_TYPE_THREAD_INTERCEPTION,
} DEBUGGER_PREALLOC_COMMAND_TYPE;

Remarks

This command will continue the debuggee for some time (in Debugger Mode). This means that you lose the current context (registers & memory) after executing this command.

Requirements

None

Related

None