Portable executable file analysing using c#

Question

C/C++ has the set of predefined structures and constants corresponding to an exe-header and so on. Do exist some analogical standard namespaces, classes in C# special for analyzing of portable executable files? Or is it only a prerogative of unmanaged unsafe more native languages?

Answer 1

There exists an managed library called PeNet which is available as open source and as a NuGet package, too. You can access and change nearly all structures in the PE header with this library. PeNet GitHub

Disclaimer: I'm the main author of the library

Answer 2

There's not much built-in to the language (if anything), but there's lots of examples out there, such as

• https://web.archive.org/web/20160312145447/http://code.cheesydesign.com/?p=572
• https://web.archive.org/web/20150826092221/http://sergeyakopov.com/2010/11/reading-pe-format-using-data-marshaling-in-net/

Answer 3

An interesting library which is published for a number of languages including c#:

https://formats.kaitai.io/microsoft_pe/csharp.html

It uses another Kaitai's class named "Kaitai Struct", which is another interesting and more general class for reading binary files.