visualbasic

Parse and inspect Visual Basic 6 compiled binaries.

This crate provides typed access to all internal structures within a VB6 compiled executable, from the PE entry point down to individual P-Code bytecode instructions.

Quick start

use visualbasic::{VbProject, RecognitionFailure};

let file_bytes = std::fs::read("sample.exe")?;

let project = match VbProject::from_bytes(&file_bytes) {
    Ok(p) => p,
    Err(e) => match e.recognition_failure() {
        Some(RecognitionFailure::NotRecognized | RecognitionFailure::UnrecognizedFormat) => {
            // Quietly skip non-VB6 files.
            return Ok(());
        }
        Some(RecognitionFailure::TruncatedContainer) => {
            eprintln!("warn: looks VB6 but truncated: {e}");
            return Ok(());
        }
        _ => return Err(e.into()),
    },
};

println!("Project: {}", project.project_name()?);
println!("Objects: {}", project.object_count()?);

for obj in project.objects()? {
    let obj = obj?;
    println!("  {} ({})", obj.name()?, obj.object_kind()?);

    for method in obj.pcode_methods()? {
        let method = method?;
        for insn in method.instructions()? {
            println!("    {}", insn?);
        }
    }
}
# Ok::<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>>(())

What it parses

• PE entry point detection (EXE push-stub and DLL export patterns)
• VBHeader, ProjectData, ObjectTable and the full structure chain
• PublicObjectDescriptor, ObjectInfo, OptionalObjectInfo, PrivateObjectDescriptor
• P-Code bytecode: opcode tables, operand decoding, streaming instruction iterator
• Controls: ControlInfo, event sink vtables, event handler thunks
• COM metadata: GUIDs, TypeLib registration, external component tables
• Form binary data: control trees, property streams, font/picture resources
• MSVBVM60.DLL exports: 169 runtime function signatures with parameter types

High-level walkers

For consumer code that wants a single tagged stream rather than walking each substructure by hand:

• [VbProject::code_entrypoints()] — every code VA in the project (P-Code stubs, native procs, native thunks, event handlers, Sub Main) in one Vec<CodeEntrypoint>.
• [VbObject::events()] — joined (control, event_slot, handler_va) bindings for a form, with per-control-type event-name resolution.
• [VbProject::gui_entries_with_form_data()] — pairs each GUI table entry with its parsed form binary in one iterator.
• [VbProject::compilation_mode()] — distinguishes Pcode / Native / Mixed binaries (combines the project flag with a per-object scan).
• [VbProject::diagnostics()] — eager parse-health probe surfacing missing optional structures and known-anomaly patterns.

Cargo features

Feature	Default	Effect
tracing	off	Emits structured tracing::warn! events at silent fail-soft sites. No effect when disabled — the helpers compile to no-ops.

Example tool

The included dump example produces an ildasm-style text dump of a VB6 executable:

cargo run --example dump -- path/to/sample.exe

Disclaimer

The VB6 compiled binary format was never officially or publicly documented by Microsoft. All structure layouts, field semantics, and P-Code opcode definitions in this crate have been reverse engineered from MSVBVM60.DLL (6.00.9848) and VB6.EXE (6.00.8176) by humans and AI. While the results have been cross-verified against runtime behavior, errors and inaccuracies are possible.

License

Copyright 2026 ATRAPS LLC. Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE and NOTICE.