Windows Resources
Executable Windows files bear the .exe extension. They generally consist of three parts:
- Header
- Executable code
- Resources
The header contains the auxiliary information that the operating system uses when launching the file. One example is the program entry point, which is a very important piece of information for any program. Another example is information about where the program's resources begin. They are usually located immediately following the executable code, but sometimes there are exceptions.
You will not modify the executable code because this is quite difficult, requiring strong familiarity with assembler and sophisticated debugging programs. Resources, however, will be examined with a fair degree of detail, as they contain many things of interest for the true hacker.
All resources are divided into the following sections:
- Bitmap: contains simple images used in dialog windows;
- Menu: a menu is a menu;
- DIALOG: the location of various dialog windows ;
- STRINGTABLE: contains messages appearing in status lines and dialog windows;
- ACCELERATORS: contains command hotkeys;
- CURSORS: a cursor is a cursor;
- ICON: self-explanatory;
- VERSIONINFO: also self-explanatory. This section does not contain anything of interest to us and we will not use it in our resource explorations.
All resources are stored in plain form and can be modified. Resources can be stored not only in executable files, but also in dynamic link libraries (.dll), screensavers (.scr), separate resource files (.res), and a number of other file types.
Resources cannot be modified using the standard operating system tools, but there are a large number of programs that have been written for this purpose. Practically any programming language has a utility or a built-in module for editing resources.
- Borland Resource Workshop is supplied with some Borland development tools.
- Microsoft Visual Studio can open an executable file for editing resources.
It should be noted that programs written in different programming languages may have different types of resources. Visual C++ compiler, for example, creates programs in which all visually created dialog window resources are stored in a standard format. Borland Delphi, on the other hand, has more powerful visual capabilities and uses a proprietary format. So it would be a good idea to learn to determine in which language the program is written.
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