Features of Secure Mode

When Secure Mode is active, and a number of commands that could be used to affect the host computer are deactivated, and there are some restrictions on symbol servers and debugger extensions.

The specific effects of Secure Mode are as follows:

• The File | Attach to a Process, File | Open Executable, Debug | Detach Debuggee, Debug | Stop Debugging, File | Open Crash Dump WinDbg menu commands are not available.

• The .shell (Command Shell) command is not available.

• Extension DLLs must be loaded from a local disk; they cannot be loaded from UNC paths.

• Only the two standard types of extension DLLs (wdbgexts.h and dbgeng.h) are permitted. Other types of DLLs cannot be loaded as extensions.

• If you are using a symbol server, there are several restrictions. Only SymSrv (symsrv.dll) is permitted; other symbol server DLLs will not be accepted. You may not use a downstream store for your symbols, and any existing downstream store will be ignored. HTTP and HTTPS connections are not permitted.

In addtion, the following commands are not available in Secure Mode.

• .attach (Attach to Process)
• .create (Create Process)
• .detach (Detach from Process)
• .abandon (Abandon Process)
• .kill (Kill Process)
• .tlist (List Process IDs)
• .dump (Create Dump File)
• .opendump (Open Dump File)
• .writemem (Write Memory to File)
• .netuse (Control Network Connections)
• .quit_lock (Prevent Accidental Quit)

After it has been activated, Secure Mode cannot be turned off. For more information see, Activating Secure Mode.