Remote debugging using IDA, connecting to windbg server (kernel mode)

Question

I do kernel debugging by using a virtual com port. One machine (host) is debugging the other machine. I have a remote machine that has IDA, and I wish to connect to the debugging session in the host machine.

The setup is as here

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debugger/remote-debugging-using-kd

I also followed the guide here.

So I setup a server using .server tcp:port=5004 (on a kernel kd session).

When I connect remotely by using cdb -remote tcp:Port=5004,Server=HOST it works. But when I try to connect using IDA, it doesn't work.

I have IDA 7.0 x64. I tried to use windbg(x64) debugger with connection string tcp:Port=5004,Server=HOST and parameter -remote and many other variations. It failed to launch in all cases.

It usually types:

Windbg: using debugging tools from 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Debuggers\x64\'
Connecting in kernel mode with 'tcp:port=5004,server=HOST'
Connect failed: The parameter is incorrect.

What did I do wrong?

BTW, the version of the debugging tools of IDA and in the host machine is the same.

Answer 1

Eventually, I have used kdsrv(x86) in the host machine :

Kdsrv -t tcp:port=5006

And in IDA the following connection string:

kdsrv:server=@{tcp:port=5006,server=HOST},trans=@{com:port=com1,baud=115200}

and it worked.