dump-virtual-box-memory.md

description
A quick reminder of one of the ways of how to dump memory of a VM running on VirtualBox in Linux environment.

Dump Virtual Box Memory

List Available VMs

cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\"
.\VBoxManage.exe list vms

...
"win1002 debugee" {5f176ebb-a0cc-4dc7-9c6f-988fcbcca867}
...

Enable Debug Mode

{% code title="linux host" %}

mantvydas@~: virtualbox --startvm 'yourVMName or VM UUID' --dbg

{% endcode %}

Dump VM Memory

Launch the VirtualBox debug console by navigating to "Debug" menu an select "Command Line":

Once you select "Command Line", you will be presented with a console that looks like this:

To create a memory dump, issue the below command (also highlighted in the above graphic):

{% code title="VM@virtualbox" %}

VBoxDbg> .pgmphystofile 'w7-nc-shell.bin'

{% endcode %}

Persistence

If you want the debug options to be always available, you can:

• export VBOX_GUI_DBG_ENABLED=true before launching the VM or
• put export VBOX_GUI_DBG_ENABLED=true in your .bashrc or /etc/environment