IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER32 structure (winnt.h)

Represents the optional header format.

Syntax

typedef struct _IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER {
  WORD                 Magic;
  BYTE                 MajorLinkerVersion;
  BYTE                 MinorLinkerVersion;
  DWORD                SizeOfCode;
  DWORD                SizeOfInitializedData;
  DWORD                SizeOfUninitializedData;
  DWORD                AddressOfEntryPoint;
  DWORD                BaseOfCode;
  DWORD                BaseOfData;
  DWORD                ImageBase;
  DWORD                SectionAlignment;
  DWORD                FileAlignment;
  WORD                 MajorOperatingSystemVersion;
  WORD                 MinorOperatingSystemVersion;
  WORD                 MajorImageVersion;
  WORD                 MinorImageVersion;
  WORD                 MajorSubsystemVersion;
  WORD                 MinorSubsystemVersion;
  DWORD                Win32VersionValue;
  DWORD                SizeOfImage;
  DWORD                SizeOfHeaders;
  DWORD                CheckSum;
  WORD                 Subsystem;
  WORD                 DllCharacteristics;
  DWORD                SizeOfStackReserve;
  DWORD                SizeOfStackCommit;
  DWORD                SizeOfHeapReserve;
  DWORD                SizeOfHeapCommit;
  DWORD                LoaderFlags;
  DWORD                NumberOfRvaAndSizes;
  IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY DataDirectory[IMAGE_NUMBEROF_DIRECTORY_ENTRIES];
} IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER32, *PIMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER32;

Members

Magic

The state of the image file. This member can be one of the following values.

Value Meaning
IMAGE_NT_OPTIONAL_HDR_MAGIC
The file is an executable image. This value is defined as IMAGE_NT_OPTIONAL_HDR32_MAGIC in a 32-bit application and as IMAGE_NT_OPTIONAL_HDR64_MAGIC in a 64-bit application.
IMAGE_NT_OPTIONAL_HDR32_MAGIC
0x10b
The file is an executable image.
IMAGE_NT_OPTIONAL_HDR64_MAGIC
0x20b
The file is an executable image.
IMAGE_ROM_OPTIONAL_HDR_MAGIC
0x107
The file is a ROM image.

MajorLinkerVersion

The major version number of the linker.

MinorLinkerVersion

The minor version number of the linker.

SizeOfCode

The size of the code section, in bytes, or the sum of all such sections if there are multiple code sections.

SizeOfInitializedData

The size of the initialized data section, in bytes, or the sum of all such sections if there are multiple initialized data sections.

SizeOfUninitializedData

The size of the uninitialized data section, in bytes, or the sum of all such sections if there are multiple uninitialized data sections.

AddressOfEntryPoint

A pointer to the entry point function, relative to the image base address. For executable files, this is the starting address. For device drivers, this is the address of the initialization function. The entry point function is optional for DLLs. When no entry point is present, this member is zero.

BaseOfCode

A pointer to the beginning of the code section, relative to the image base.

BaseOfData

A pointer to the beginning of the data section, relative to the image base.

ImageBase

The preferred address of the first byte of the image when it is loaded in memory. This value is a multiple of 64K bytes. The default value for DLLs is 0x10000000. The default value for applications is 0x00400000, except on Windows CE where it is 0x00010000.

SectionAlignment

The alignment of sections loaded in memory, in bytes. This value must be greater than or equal to the FileAlignment member. The default value is the page size for the system.

FileAlignment

The alignment of the raw data of sections in the image file, in bytes. The value should be a power of 2 between 512 and 64K (inclusive). The default is 512. If the SectionAlignment member is less than the system page size, this member must be the same as SectionAlignment.

MajorOperatingSystemVersion

The major version number of the required operating system.

MinorOperatingSystemVersion

The minor version number of the required operating system.

MajorImageVersion

The major version number of the image.

MinorImageVersion

The minor version number of the image.

MajorSubsystemVersion

The major version number of the subsystem.

MinorSubsystemVersion

The minor version number of the subsystem.

Win32VersionValue

This member is reserved and must be 0.

SizeOfImage

The size of the image, in bytes, including all headers. Must be a multiple of SectionAlignment.

SizeOfHeaders

The combined size of the following items, rounded to a multiple of the value specified in the FileAlignment member.

  • e_lfanew member of IMAGE_DOS_HEADER
  • 4 byte signature
  • size of IMAGE_FILE_HEADER
  • size of optional header
  • size of all section headers

CheckSum

The image file checksum. The following files are validated at load time: all drivers, any DLL loaded at boot time, and any DLL loaded into a critical system process.

Subsystem

The subsystem required to run this image. The following values are defined.

Value Meaning
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_UNKNOWN
0
Unknown subsystem.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_NATIVE
1
No subsystem required (device drivers and native system processes).
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI
2
Windows graphical user interface (GUI) subsystem.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI
3
Windows character-mode user interface (CUI) subsystem.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_OS2_CUI
5
OS/2 CUI subsystem.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_POSIX_CUI
7
POSIX CUI subsystem.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CE_GUI
9
Windows CE system.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_EFI_APPLICATION
10
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) application.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_EFI_BOOT_SERVICE_DRIVER
11
EFI driver with boot services.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_EFI_RUNTIME_DRIVER
12
EFI driver with run-time services.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_EFI_ROM
13
EFI ROM image.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_XBOX
14
Xbox system.
IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_BOOT_APPLICATION
16
Boot application.

DllCharacteristics

The DLL characteristics of the image. The following values are defined.

Value Meaning
0x0001
Reserved.
0x0002
Reserved.
0x0004
Reserved.
0x0008
Reserved.
IMAGE_DLL_CHARACTERISTICS_HIGH_ENTROPY_VA
0x0020
ASLR with 64 bit address space.
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_DYNAMIC_BASE
0x0040
The DLL can be relocated at load time.
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_FORCE_INTEGRITY
0x0080
Code integrity checks are forced. If you set this flag and a section contains only uninitialized data, set the PointerToRawData member of IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER for that section to zero; otherwise, the image will fail to load because the digital signature cannot be verified.
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_NX_COMPAT
0x0100
The image is compatible with data execution prevention (DEP).
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_NO_ISOLATION
0x0200
The image is isolation aware, but should not be isolated.
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_NO_SEH
0x0400
The image does not use structured exception handling (SEH). No handlers can be called in this image.
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_NO_BIND
0x0800
Do not bind the image.
IMAGE_DLL_CHARACTERISTICS_APPCONTAINER
0x1000
Image should execute in an AppContainer.
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_WDM_DRIVER
0x2000
A WDM driver.
IMAGE_DLL_CHARACTERISTICS_GUARD_CF
0x4000
Image supports Control Flow Guard.
IMAGE_DLLCHARACTERISTICS_TERMINAL_SERVER_AWARE
0x8000
The image is terminal server aware.

SizeOfStackReserve

The number of bytes to reserve for the stack. Only the memory specified by the SizeOfStackCommit member is committed at load time; the rest is made available one page at a time until this reserve size is reached.

SizeOfStackCommit

The number of bytes to commit for the stack.

SizeOfHeapReserve

The number of bytes to reserve for the local heap. Only the memory specified by the SizeOfHeapCommit member is committed at load time; the rest is made available one page at a time until this reserve size is reached.

SizeOfHeapCommit

The number of bytes to commit for the local heap.

LoaderFlags

This member is obsolete.

NumberOfRvaAndSizes

The number of directory entries in the remainder of the optional header. Each entry describes a location and size.

DataDirectory[IMAGE_NUMBEROF_DIRECTORY_ENTRIES]

A pointer to the first IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY structure in the data directory.

The index number of the desired directory entry. This parameter can be one of the following values.

Value Meaning
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_ARCHITECTURE
7
Architecture-specific data
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_BASERELOC
5
Base relocation table
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_BOUND_IMPORT
11
Bound import directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_COM_DESCRIPTOR
14
COM descriptor table
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_DEBUG
6
Debug directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_DELAY_IMPORT
13
Delay import table
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_EXCEPTION
3
Exception directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_EXPORT
0
Export directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_GLOBALPTR
8
The relative virtual address of global pointer
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_IAT
12
Import address table
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_IMPORT
1
Import directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_LOAD_CONFIG
10
Load configuration directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_RESOURCE
2
Resource directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_SECURITY
4
Security directory
IMAGE_DIRECTORY_ENTRY_TLS
9
Thread local storage directory

Remarks

The number of directories is not fixed. Check the NumberOfRvaAndSizes member before looking for a specific directory.

The actual structure in WinNT.h is named IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER32 and IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER is defined as IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER32. However, if _WIN64 is defined, then IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER is defined as IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER64.

typedef struct _IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER64 {
 WORD        Magic;
 BYTE        MajorLinkerVersion;
 BYTE        MinorLinkerVersion;
 DWORD       SizeOfCode;
 DWORD       SizeOfInitializedData;
 DWORD       SizeOfUninitializedData;
 DWORD       AddressOfEntryPoint;
 DWORD       BaseOfCode;
 ULONGLONG   ImageBase;
 DWORD       SectionAlignment;
 DWORD       FileAlignment;
 WORD        MajorOperatingSystemVersion;
 WORD        MinorOperatingSystemVersion;
 WORD        MajorImageVersion;
 WORD        MinorImageVersion;
 WORD        MajorSubsystemVersion;
 WORD        MinorSubsystemVersion;
 DWORD       Win32VersionValue;
 DWORD       SizeOfImage;
 DWORD       SizeOfHeaders;
 DWORD       CheckSum;
 WORD        Subsystem;
 WORD        DllCharacteristics;
 ULONGLONG   SizeOfStackReserve;
 ULONGLONG   SizeOfStackCommit;
 ULONGLONG   SizeOfHeapReserve;
 ULONGLONG   SizeOfHeapCommit;
 DWORD       LoaderFlags;
 DWORD       NumberOfRvaAndSizes;
 IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY DataDirectory[IMAGE_NUMBEROF_DIRECTORY_ENTRIES];
} IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER64, *PIMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER64;

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows XP [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps only]
Header winnt.h (include Windows.h)

See also

IMAGE_DATA_DIRECTORY

ImageHlp Structures