PE Header Requirements

Question

What are the requirements of a PE file (PE/COFF)? What fields should be set, which value, at a bare minimum for enabling it to "run" on Windows (i.e. executing "ret" instruction and then close, without error).

The library I am building first is the linker: Now, the problem I have is the PE file (PE/COFF). I don't know what is "required" for a PE file before it can actually execute on my platform. My testing platform is Vista. I get an error message, saying "This is not a valid Win32 executable." when I execute it by double-clicking, and I get an "Access Denied." when executing it with CLI cmd. I have two sections, .text and .data.

I've implemented the PE headers as provided by several online documents, i.e. MSDN and some other thirdparty documentation. If I use a hex-editor, it looks almost like a regular PE file. I don't use any imports, nor IAT, nor any directories in the PE header.

Edit: I've added an import table, still not a valid .exe-file, says my Windows. I've tried to use values which are also mentioned at the smallest PE-file guide. No luck. Really the only thing I can't seem to figure out is what is required and what isn't. Some guides tell me everything is required, whilst others say about deprications: and it can be zero.

I hope this is enough information. Thank you, in advance.

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Raw data (as requested) of current PE header:

4D 5A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 50 45 00 00 4C 01 02 00 C8 7A 55 4B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E0 00 82 01 0B 01 0D 25 00 10 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 10 00 00 00 02 00 00 01 00 0B 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 22 00 00 38 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 0E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2E 74 65 78 74 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 60 2E 69 64 61 74 61 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 3C 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 24 20 00 00 34 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4B 45 52 4E 45 4C 33 32 2E 64 6C 6C 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 80 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 80 00 00 00 00

Answer 1

This is a complete pain to copy paste into a hex editor, so unfortunately I cannot say anything too intelligent right off the bat.

Things to notice in a PE file: Make sure your DOS header is valid. Make sure the IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER is properly formatted, because despite it's name, Windows does not really like it to not be done properly.

For further information, above and beyond the MS format, lookup pe.txt, one of the best homebrew guides to the PE format I know.

If you could post just the bytes, I could try putting it in my own PE parsers and see if I can help more.

Answer 2

This article about creating tiny PE executables might be of interest: in particular, it mentions that the Win2k loader needs KERNEL32.DLL to be imported, so that might be worth investigating.