Delphi applications and the TSAWARE header flag [closed]
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10517022
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06-06-2021 - |
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Could this problem also apply to Delphi applications running on Terminal Servers?
As the MSDN article "An Office 2007 or Office 2003 application that is running on an RD Session Host server may close unexpectedly in Windows Server 2008 R2" explains
This issue occurs because of the Tsappcmd.dll component. This component makes changes to the Import Address Table (IAT) for applications that are not Terminal Server aware in order to prevent viruses or malware from maliciously hooking the application. Because of this, the application may experience temporary memory corruption because of the order in which the modules are loaded. Office 2007 and Office 2003 do not contain the TSAWARE header flag. This flag notifies the server that the application is Terminal Server aware.
Some Delphi 2009 applications in a user environment (Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1) frequently hang or crash. I am looking for possible reasons, as these hangs / crashes can not be reproduced.
The MSDN article seems to apply to Office products first, is this correct or - attention, here is the basic question - does Tsappcmd.dll also modify non-Office programs so the error can occur with Delphi apps? (Of course I would prefer to leave the Delphi applications untouched if the missing TSAWARE flag is not harmful).
Solution
Yes Tsappcmd.dll will affect any and all programs that do not have the TSAWARE flag in the PE header. This does NOT automatically mean however that all those apps are affected by this particular bug. But you can easily test this by setting the TSAWARE flag (see the link that TOndrej provided to my blog) or by setting the registry key that is mentioned in the KB article.
PS: the explanation that it's a protection against viruses seems like a bogus explanation, this mechanism was introduced for app compat reasons...
