FltCreateFile and top device.

FltCreateFile calls IoCreateFileEx with IO_DRIVER_CREATE_CONTEXT.DeviceObjectHint pointing to the Filter Manager's filter object and then calls the lower registered filters. That allows the created file object to have TopDeviceObjectHint pointing to the Filter Manager's object.

 # Child-SP          RetAddr           Call Site
00 ffffe101`3fffebf8 fffff801`92125200 FLTMGR!FltpCreate
01 ffffe101`3fffec00 fffff801`9213058b nt!IopParseDevice+0x7f0
02 ffffe101`3fffedd0 fffff801`921340c0 nt!ObpLookupObjectName+0x46b
03 ffffe101`3fffefa0 fffff801`9213803a nt!ObOpenObjectByNameEx+0x1e0
04 ffffe101`3ffff0e0 fffff801`920b0eb4 nt!IopCreateFile+0x3aa
05 ffffe101`3ffff180 fffff808`485240d5 nt!IoCreateFileEx+0x124
06 ffffe101`3ffff210 fffff808`4853d32d FLTMGR!FltpCreateFile+0x1cd
07 ffffe101`3ffff310 fffff808`4b6a79f8 FLTMGR!FltCreateFile+0x8d
08 ffffe101`3ffff3a0 fffff808`484f4b4c avscan!AvPreCreate+0x378 [d:\work\avscan\filter\avscan.c @ 2106]
09 ffffe101`3ffff4b0 fffff808`484f46ec FLTMGR!FltpPerformPreCallbacks+0x2ec
0a ffffe101`3ffff5d0 fffff808`48526117 FLTMGR!FltpPassThroughInternal+0x8c
0b ffffe101`3ffff600 fffff801`92125200 FLTMGR!FltpCreate+0x2d7
0c ffffe101`3ffff6b0 fffff801`9213058b nt!IopParseDevice+0x7f0
0d ffffe101`3ffff880 fffff801`921340c0 nt!ObpLookupObjectName+0x46b
0e ffffe101`3ffffa50 fffff801`920c9e90 nt!ObOpenObjectByNameEx+0x1e0

0: kd> dt nt!_FILE_OBJECT ffff948c621a3330
   +0x000 Type             : 0n5
   +0x002 Size             : 0n216
   +0x008 DeviceObject     : 0xffff948c`60a3bc80 _DEVICE_OBJECT
   +0x010 Vpb              : 0xffff948c`60a556e0 _VPB
   +0x018 FsContext        : 0xffff948c`6111a740 Void
   +0x020 FsContext2       : 0xffff8483`76cf78f0 Void
   +0x028 SectionObjectPointer : (null) 
   +0x030 PrivateCacheMap  : (null) 
   +0x038 FinalStatus      : 0n0
   +0x040 RelatedFileObject : (null) 
   +0x048 LockOperation    : 0 ''
   +0x049 DeletePending    : 0 ''
   +0x04a ReadAccess       : 0x1 ''
   +0x04b WriteAccess      : 0 ''
   +0x04c DeleteAccess     : 0 ''
   +0x04d SharedRead       : 0x1 ''
   +0x04e SharedWrite      : 0x1 ''
   +0x04f SharedDelete     : 0x1 ''
   +0x050 Flags            : 0x40000
   +0x058 FileName         : _UNICODE_STRING "\"
   +0x068 CurrentByteOffset : _LARGE_INTEGER 0x0
   +0x070 Waiters          : 0
   +0x074 Busy             : 0
   +0x078 LastLock         : (null) 
   +0x080 Lock             : _KEVENT
   +0x098 Event            : _KEVENT
   +0x0b0 CompletionContext : (null) 
   +0x0b8 IrpListLock      : 0
   +0x0c0 IrpList          : _LIST_ENTRY [ 0xffff948c`621a33f0 - 0xffff948c`621a33f0 ]
   +0x0d0 FileObjectExtension : 0xffff948c`6226f1b0 Void
   
0: kd> dq 0xffff948c`6226f1b0
ffff948c`6226f1b0  00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`6226f1c0  ffff948c`60dff0d0 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`6226f1d0  ffff948c`6243f2c0 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`6226f1e0  00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`6226f1f0  00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`6226f200  61436d4d`02120006 00000000`0000034c
ffff948c`6226f210  ffff8483`7535ed10 ffff948c`62161e28
ffff948c`6226f220  ffff948c`6221da78 00000000`00000000

0: kd> dq ffff948c`60dff0d0
ffff948c`60dff0d0  ffff948c`610734a0 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`60dff0e0  00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`60dff0f0  65536d4d`02060003 6c8da38a`069a7123
ffff948c`60dff100  00000000`00000000 0000024e`49c8000a
ffff948c`60dff110  0000024e`49c80fff 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`60dff120  00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`60dff130  00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000
ffff948c`60dff140  00000000`00000002 00000000`00000000

0: kd> !object ffff948c`610734a0
Object: ffff948c610734a0  Type: (ffff948c5e34eb00) Device
    ObjectHeader: ffff948c61073470 (new version)
    HandleCount: 0  PointerCount: 1
    
0: kd> !devstack ffff948c610734a0
  !DevObj           !DrvObj            !DevExt           ObjectName
> ffff948c610734a0  \FileSystem\FltMgr ffff948c610735f0  
  ffff948c61048060  \FileSystem\fastfatffff948c610481b0 
  
0: kd> !vpb 0xffff948c`60a556e0
Vpb at 0xffff948c60a556e0
Flags: 0x1 mounted 
DeviceObject: 0xffff948c61048060
RealDevice:   0xffff948c60a3bc80
RefCount: 8
Volume Label: 

Microsoft Security Essentials content scan callback to the service.

Below is a stack when a MSE file system filter(WdFilter.sys) called a service(MsMpEng.exe) to perform file content scan on file open.


00 nt!KiSwapContext

01 nt!KiSwapThread
02 nt!KiCommitThreadWait
03 nt!KeWaitForMultipleObjects
04 nt!FsRtlCancellableWaitForMultipleObjects
05 FLTMGR!FltSendMessage
06 WdFilter!MpScanFile
07 WdFilter!MpAmPostCreate
08 WdFilter!MpPostCreate
09 FLTMGR!FltpPerformPostCallbacks
0a FLTMGR!FltpPassThroughCompletionWorker
0b FLTMGR!FltpLegacyProcessingAfterPreCallbacksCompleted
0c FLTMGR!FltpCreate
16 nt!IopParseDevice
17 nt!ObpLookupObjectName
18 nt!ObOpenObjectByNameEx
19 nt!IopCreateFile
1a nt!NtCreateFile
1b nt!KiSystemServiceCopyEnd
1c ntdll!NtCreateFile

In response the service sent an IOCTL to the filter to create a section( i.e. a mapped file) for data scan

0b mup!MupStateMachine
0c mup!MupFsControl
0d FLTMGR!FltpLegacyProcessingAfterPreCallbacksCompleted
0e FLTMGR!FltPerformSynchronousIo
0f FLTMGR!IssueControlOperation
10 FLTMGR!FltFsControlFile
11 FLTMGR!FltpSetPurgeFailureMode
12 FLTMGR!FltCreateSectionForDataScan
13 WdFilter!MpCreateSection
14 WdFilter!MpMessage
15 FLTMGR!FltpFilterMessage
16 FLTMGR!FltpMsgDispatch
17 FLTMGR!FltpDispatch
21 nt!IopSynchronousServiceTail
22 nt!IopXxxControlFile
23 nt!NtDeviceIoControlFile
24 nt!KiSystemServiceCopyEnd
25 ntdll!NtDeviceIoControlFile

A case of successful registration of an incorrectly defined file system minifilter.

 An interesting observation. If you forget to terminate FLT_OPERATION_REGISTRATION array with IRP_MJ_OPERATION_END then no instances will be attached but a minifilter is successfully registered and InstanceSetup callback is called. No any error is reported. Just yet another case of a closed source Microsoft subsystem with inconsistent behavior when you can spent hours chasing a bug by trial and error approach instead of looking at source code.