Creating and exe from zero

[Pancake]

Hello everyone. Today i bumped onto one very crazy idea

I am trying to preapre an exe file from scratch, not using any compiler, just create hex file. Im goin to create PE header, fill all values, create sections, directories, imports etc. So here comes my question. How much work has to be done to make windows loader successfully load the exe, map it and run the code inside? Is it only about creating the header with all its dependiences, or somehing more?

[Extreme Coders]

See here about creating the smallest possible portable executable.

http://www.phreedom.org/research/tinype/

[ToMKoL]

Take a look at http://crackmes.de/users/the_binary_auditor/the_binary_auditor_file_format_exercise/ It may give you some ideas about how much work is needed.

[Pancake]

Wow thats what i was looking for

[Pancake]

When i load the tiny.exe into olly i see ntvdm instead of the tiny.exe, and no info in memory map. Is that okay? And the 133 byte one gives error "program is to big to fit memory"

Edited April 6, 2015 by Pancake