Injecting a DLL into a Target Process VB.NET

I recently wrote a quick VB.NET app that injects a DLL into a running process. To test it I was creating my own vb.net Class Library project which simply spawns a "Hell开发者_C百科o World" message box in hopes of it showing up in the target process once I injected my HelloWorld.DLL.

My problem is that the message box never shows up after I inject the HelloWorld.DLL. I'm pretty sure the reason for this is because once my HelloWorld.DLL is injected (since it's a VB.NET DLL) it does not have a DllMain and hence has no idea what to execute and nothing happens.

Do I have to make my injection DLL in C++ so it has a DllMain? Is there anything I can do as a work around? Or am I completely wrong about everything.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

While the .NET DLL is technically an extension of the PE format it is that extension that makes it intrinsically different to a DLL that contains pure compiled, native code. In order for the .NET code (managed code) to be run is will need to be executed by the .NET interpreter and withing the context of an AppDomain.

Essentially there is a load of stuff that .NET will do to get that code up and running.

Microsoft (bless 'em!) have written and article outlining what you need to do here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828736

Another option is to not write pure C++ code, but instead to create a managed C++ project which will be much easier in getting the two to play nicely together. BTW having a managed C++ project doesn't mean all the code has to be managed either AFAIK