Editing Portable Executable (section)

===Layout===
[[File:Portable Executable 32 bit Structure in SVG fixed.svg|thumb|Structure of a Portable Executable 32 bit]]
A PE file consists of several headers and sections that instruct the [[dynamic linker]] about on how to map the file into memory. An executable image consists of several different regions, each requiring different memory protection attributes. To ensure proper alignment, the start of each section must align to a page boundary.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.csn.ul.ie/%7Ecaolan/pub/winresdump/winresdump/doc/pefile2.html |title=The Portable Executable File From Top to Bottom |access-date=2017-10-21}}</ref> For instance, the ''.text'' section, which contains program code, is typically mapped as an execute/read-only. Conversely, the ''.data'' section, which holds global variables, is mapped as no-execute/read write. However, to conserve space, sections are not aligned on disk in this manner. The dynamic linker maps each section to memory individually and assigns the correct permissions based on the information in the headers.<ref name="Peering Inside">{{cite web |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms809762.aspx |title=Peering Inside the PE: A Tour of the Win32 Portable Executable File |date=30 June 2010 |access-date=2017-10-21}}</ref>