How to save a dynamically generated assembly that is stored in-memory?

Question

I want to get my hands on an assembly by saving it to disc or reflect it at runtime. The assembly is generated dynamically in memory by third party.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Answer 1

You can do this using SOS in WinDbg.

The problem is finding the modules.

If you do get your hands on it, there is a 'SaveModule' command to dump the module/assembly to file.

Good luck :)

Answer 2

Try this (found here):

byte[] dllAsArray;

using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
    BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();

    formatter.Serialize(stream, results.CompiledAssembly);

    dllAsArray = stream.ToArray();
}

Answer 3

It's been a while since I did this, I'm guessing that the program that hands you the DLL uses CompilerParameters.GenerateInMemory=True.

Thing is however that the dll does actually get saved on disk in some temp folder for a brief while (while it runs or something... ) because that is how the C# compiler works (worked?).

I can remember this being an issue for me back then but I'm having trouble getting back the details now, gimme a sec. You can probablby find this out with ProcessExplorer or similar tools to see which files were saved/ touched.