C++ equivalent of BitConverter

Question

I'm trying to read the PE headers of a file to get some information. For .NET and C#, I'm using BitConverter to convert the Byte array obtained after having read the file to an integer equivalent. I wish to do the same with C++, but am not sure of the best approach. I'm using an unsigned char array as the Byte array equivalent.

The code is given below..

uint16_t GetAppCompiledMachineType(string fileName)
{
    const int ptr_offset = 4096;            
    const int mac_offset = 4;
     char *data = new char[4096];
    fstream f;
    f.open(fileName, ios::in | ios::binary  );
    f.read(data, 4096);


    int32_t pe_addr= *reinterpret_cast<int32_t*>(data, ptr_offset);
    uint16_t machineUint = *reinterpret_cast<std::uint16_t*>(data, pe_addr + mac_offset);
    return machineUint;

 }
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{

      string fileName = "<some_path>\\depends.exe";
      uint16_t tempInt = GetAppCompiledMachineType(fileName);
      cout<<tempInt;
      std::getchar();

    return 0;
}

I'll be using the O/P to query the PE header for information. Need the equivalent of BitCOnverter here. and hopefully it will work.

UPDATE : Thanks for the replies. As suggested I'm trying to use the cast, to convert the character array into Int, to read the PE Header, but it's giving me an access violation Unhandled exception. This is the full code, the file is valid and is being read. I tried with debug, and Optimization disabled, but to no avail.

Kindly advise.

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

You have a byte array pointer (char* data) then simply move pointer to offset you need data + PE_POINTER_OFFSET, cast to pointer to integer (int*)(data + PE_POINTER_OFFSET) and deference the pointer to get value:

int32_t head_addr = *reinterpret_cast<int32_t*>(data + PE_POINTER_OFFSET);
uint16_t machineUint = *reinterpret_cast<uint16_t*>(data + head_addr + macoffset);

EDIT 1: you're trying to read a PE so I may safely assume your environment is Windows. Both x86 and x64 supports unaligned memory access (of course you'll pay a price in performance for this but probably nothing you will ever note and you'll save memcpys).

Itanimum (if you have to support it) and (very old) ARM may be a problem: for first one just use __unaligned for your char array and for second one (if you don't let compiler do the job for you) you can use __packed.

Note also that this assumptions (plus endianness) are valid because you're working with PE files on Windows environment, if you had to write portable code or to read something else then this is not the right way to do it (in short you have to address single bytes and to copy them using a fixed order).

EDIT 2: according to updated code you're using problem is with *reinterpret_cast<int32_t*>(data, ptr_offset), note that you don't sum a pointer with an offset and also offset is invalid (it should be 60 - if I'm not wrong). What you're doing there is reading from absolute location with address 4096 and it'll cause an access violation. In code:

uint16_t GetAppCompiledMachineType(string fileName)
{
    const int32_t PE_POINTER_OFFSET = 60;            
    const int32_t MACHINE_OFFSET = 4;

    char data[4096];

    fstream f;
    f.open(fileName, ios::in | ios::binary);
    f.read(data, sizeof(data));

    int32_t pe_header_offset = *reinterpret_cast<int32_t*>(
        data + PE_POINTER_OFFSET);

    // assert(pe_header_offset + MACHINE_OFFSET < sizeof(data));

    return *reinterpret_cast<std::uint16_t*>(
        data + pe_header_offset + MACHINE_OFFSET);
}

This code is still far to be production quality but note few changes:

• Buffer data isn't dynamically allocated then you don't need to free that memory (you were not freeing allocated memory, Windows will free it for you when process exits but if you call that function many times you'll consume memory).
• With statically allocated array you can use sizeof() to determine buffer size (as input for read()).
• PE_POINTER_OFFSET has now correct value (60 instead of 4096).
• Offset from data is now calculated correctly (as sum of data with PE_POINTER_OFFSET).

All these said we're still using a buffered approach but it's pretty useless here because fstream will manage that for us. Let's simplify our code (with the side effect to also make it more robust, we're not assuming PE header fits our 4K buffer).

uint16_t GetAppCompiledMachineType(string fileName)
{
    const int32_t PE_POINTER_OFFSET = 60;            
    const int32_t MACHINE_OFFSET = 4;

    fstream f(fileName, ios::in | ios::binary);

    int32_t pe_header_offset:
    f.seekg(PE_POINTER_OFFSET); f >> pe_header_offset;

    uint16_t machineType;
    f.seekg(pe_header_offset + MACHINE_OFFSET); f >> machineType;

    return machineType;
}

Now it works without casts and conversions (but still assuming PE and machine endianness match).

Answer 2

refactoring to eliminate data alignment problems on some architectures:

template<class T>
T from_buffer(uint8_t* buffer, size_t offset)
{
  T t_buf = 0;
  memcpy(&t_buf, buffer + offset, sizeof(T));
  return t_buf;
}

...

int32_t head_addr = from_buffer<in32_t>(buffer, PE_POINTER_OFFSET);
uint16_t machineUint = from_buffer<uint16_t>(buffer, size_t(head_addr + macoffset));

Answer 3

Best approach would be declare the structure of the PE File Format. Example:

struct dos_header {
     char signature[2] = "MZ";
     boost::int16_t lastsize;
     ..
     boost::int16_t reserved2[10];
     boost::int32_t e_lfanew;
}

Notes:

• It's better to use cross platform integer of expected size (int32_t instead of long).
• Be carefull with structure alignment (use #pragma pack(8) if have problem with alignment).
• This structures are declared in windows.h but for cross platform development, I recommend declare your separately and portable.
• In 64bits architectures, some of the structures have changes.

When you have the mapped structures, you can cast the buffer as pointer to the structure and access the members.

Sample:

if (offset + sizeof(dos_header) > size_data) {
    // handle the error
    // exit
} 
const dos_header* dh = static_cast<const dos_header*>(data + offset);
std::cout << dh->e_lfanew << std::endl;