Retrieving dll version info via Win32 - VerQueryValue(...) crashes under Win7 x64

Question

The respected open source .NET wrapper implementation (SharpBITS) of Windows BITS services fails identifying the underlying BITS version under Win7 x64.

Here is the source code that fails. NativeMethods are native Win32 calls wrapped by .NET methods and decorated via DllImport attribute.

private static BitsVersion GetBitsVersion()
    {
        try
        {
            string fileName = Path.Combine(
                     System.Environment.SystemDirectory, "qmgr.dll");
            int handle = 0;
            int size = NativeMethods.GetFileVersionInfoSize(fileName, 
                                                            out handle);
            if (size == 0) return BitsVersion.Bits0_0;
            byte[] buffer = new byte[size];
            if (!NativeMethods.GetFileVersionInfo(fileName, 
                                                  handle, 
                                                  size, 
                                                  buffer))
            {
                return BitsVersion.Bits0_0;
            }
            IntPtr subBlock = IntPtr.Zero;
            uint len = 0;
            if (!NativeMethods.VerQueryValue(buffer,
                              @"\VarFileInfo\Translation", 
                              out subBlock, 
                              out len))
            {
                return BitsVersion.Bits0_0;
            }

            int block1 = Marshal.ReadInt16(subBlock);
            int block2 = Marshal.ReadInt16((IntPtr)((int)subBlock + 2 ));
            string spv = string.Format(
                 @"\StringFileInfo\{0:X4}{1:X4}\ProductVersion", 
                 block1, 
                 block2);

            string versionInfo;
            if (!NativeMethods.VerQueryValue(buffer, 
                                             spv, 
                                             out versionInfo, 
                                             out len))
            {
                return BitsVersion.Bits0_0;
            }
...

The implementation follows the MSDN instructions by the letter. Still during the second VerQueryValue(...) call, the application crashes and kills the debug session without hesitation. Just a little more debug info right before the crash:

• spv => "\StringFileInfo\040904B0\ProductVersion"
• buffer => byte[1900] - full with binary data
• block1 => 1033
• block2 => 1200

I looked at the targeted "C:\Windows\System32\qmgr.dll" file (The implementation of BITS) via Windows. It says that the Product Version is 7.5.7600.16385. Instead of crashing, this value should return in the verionInfo string. Any advice?

Answer 1

The answer of Nobugz does point out a very valid issue (big thanx for that!), but the final killer was a .NET bug: marshaling strings in this scenario fails under the x64 .NET implementation. The bug is fixed in .NET4.0. Here is the issue reported, as well as Microsoft's answer.

The recommended workaround is retrieve an IntPtr instead of the string as output and marshaling the string manually. So the final code (including the fix of Nobugz):

int block1 = Marshal.ReadInt16(subBlock);
int block2 = Marshal.ReadInt16(subBlock, 2);
string spv = string.Format(@"\StringFileInfo\{0:X4}{1:X4}\ProductVersion", 
                             block1, block2);

IntPtr versionInfoPtr;
if (!NativeMethods.VerQueryValue(buffer, spv, out versionInfoPtr, out len))
{
     return BitsVersion.Bits0_0;
}
string versionInfo = Marshal.PtrToStringAuto(versionInfoPtr);