delphidelphi-2006

Explain errors from GetKeyState / GetCursorPos


Sometimes I get bug reports from customers, that I can't explain. After Application.Run() in Delphi I get the following errors:

 EOSError: System error: Code:_5 Access denied

 Call Stack Information:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
|Address |Module     |Unit       |Class |Procedure       |Line    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
|Running Thread: ID=4352; Priorität=0; Klasse=; [Main Thread]     |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
|772B291F|USER32.dll |           |      |GetKeyState     |        |
|772B7B96|USER32.dll |           |      |GetPropA        |        |
|772B7B5A|USER32.dll |           |      |GetPropA        |        |
|772A7BC5|USER32.dll |           |      |DispatchMessageA|        |
|772A7BBB|USER32.dll |           |      |DispatchMessageA|        |
|00A6D804|Program.exe|Program.dpr|      |                |803[369]|  // Application.Run
-------------------------------------------------------------------

and

EOsError: A call to an OS function failed

Call Stack Information:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
|Address |Module     |Unit       |Class |Procedure       |Line    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------
|Running Thread: ID=2712; Priorität=0; Klasse=; [Main Thread]     |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
|7E379758|USER32.dll |           |      |GetCursorPos    |        |
|7E379ED9|USER32.dll |           |      |GetKeyState     |        |
|7E37B3FC|USER32.dll |           |      |CallNextHookEx  |        |
|7E380078|USER32.dll |           |      |GetPropA        |        |
|7E380042|USER32.dll |           |      |GetPropA        |        |
|7E3696C2|USER32.dll |           |      |DispatchMessageA|        |
|7E3696B8|USER32.dll |           |      |DispatchMessageA|        |
|00A6E823|Program.exe|Program.dpr|      |                |803[369]|  //Application.Run
-------------------------------------------------------------------

In both cases the screenshot submitted from Eurekalog is completely black.

Can anybody explain, what can cause GetCursorPos or GetKeyState to fail this way?


Solution

  • The documentation for GetCursorPos says:

    The input desktop must be the current desktop when you call GetCursorPos. Call OpenInputDesktop to determine whether the current desktop is the input desktop. If it is not, call SetThreadDesktop with the HDESK returned by OpenInputDesktop to switch to that desktop.

    You can fall foul of this, most commonly when unlocking a workstation. In my code I replace GetCursorPos with this variant:

    function GetCursorPos(var lpPoint: TPoint): BOOL; stdcall;
    (* The GetCursorPos API in user32 fails if it is passed a memory address >2GB 
       which breaks LARGEADDRESSAWARE apps.  We counter this by calling GetCursorInfo
       instead which does not suffer from the same problem.
    
       In addition we have had problems with GetCursorPos failing when called 
       immediately after a password protected screensaver or a locked workstation 
       re-authenticates. This problem initially appeared with XP SP1 and is brought 
       about because TMouse.GetCursorPos checks the return value of the GetCursorPos 
       API call and raises an OS exception if the API has failed.
    *)
    var
      CursorInfo: TCursorInfo;
    begin
      CursorInfo.cbSize := SizeOf(CursorInfo);
      Result := GetCursorInfo(CursorInfo);
      if Result then begin
        lpPoint := CursorInfo.ptScreenPos;
      end else begin
        lpPoint := Point(0, 0);
      end;
    end;
    

    You can use your favourite code hooking mechanism to replace GetCursorPos. I do it like so:

    RedirectProcedure(@Windows.GetCursorPos, @CodePatcher.GetCursorPos);
    

    with RedirectProcedure as described here: Patch routine call in delphi

    It turned out for my particular scenario, that GetCursorPos would fail, but GetCursorInfo would not fail. But as has been pointed out in the comments, there are scenarios where GetCursorInfo will also fail. In that case you might find it expedient to arrange that the patched function does not return False.

    As for GetKeyState, I'm not sure about that one. It's quite possibly similar but GetKeyState is an API that I am not personally familiar with.