Practical Foundations of ARM64 Linux Debugging, Disassembling, Reversing
Practical Foundations of ARM64 Linux Debugging, Disassembling, Reversing
Training Course
About the Book
This training course is a Linux ARM64 (A64) version of the previous Practical Foundations of Linux Debugging, Disassembly, Reversing book. It also complements Accelerated Linux Core Dump Analysis training course.
The book skeleton is the same as its x64 Linux predecessor, but the content was revised entirely because of a different Linux distribution and CPU architecture.
The course is useful for:
- Software support and escalation engineers, cloud security engineers, SRE, and DevSecOps
- Software engineers coming from JVM background
- Software testers
- Engineers coming from non-Linux environments, for example, Windows or Mac OS X
- Engineers coming from non-ARM environments, for example, x86/x64
- Linux C/C++ software engineers without assembly language background
- Security researchers without assembly language background
- Beginners learning Linux software reverse engineering techniques
This book can also be used as an ARM64 assembly language and Linux debugging supplement for relevant undergraduate-level courses.
About the Author
Table of Contents
Contents 4
Preface 9
About the Author 10
Chapter A64.1: Memory, Registers, and Simple Arithmetic 11
Memory and Registers inside an Idealized Computer 11
Memory and Registers inside ARM 64-bit Computer 12
“Arithmetic” Project: Memory Layout and Registers 13
“Arithmetic” Project: A Computer Program 14
“Arithmetic” Project: Assigning Numbers to Memory Locations 15
Assigning Numbers to Registers 18
“Arithmetic” Project: Adding Numbers to Memory Cells 19
Incrementing/Decrementing Numbers in Memory and Registers 22
Multiplying Numbers 25
Chapter A64.2: Code Optimization 29
“Arithmetic” Project: C/C++ Program 29
Downloading GDB 31
GDB Disassembly Output – No Optimization 32
GDB Disassembly Output – Optimization 37
Chapter A64.3: Number Representations 39
Numbers and Their Representations 39
Decimal Representation (Base Ten) 40
Ternary Representation (Base Three) 41
Binary Representation (Base Two) 42
Hexadecimal Representation (Base Sixteen) 43
Why are Hexadecimals used? 44
Chapter A64.4: Pointers 47
A Definition 47
“Pointers” Project: Memory Layout and Registers 48
“Pointers” Project: Calculations 50
Using Pointers to Assign Numbers to Memory Cells 51
Adding Numbers Using Pointers 58
Incrementing Numbers Using Pointers 62
Multiplying Numbers Using Pointers 65
Chapter A64.5: Bytes, Half Words, Words, and Double Words 69
Using Hexadecimal Numbers 69
Byte Granularity 70
Bit Granularity 71
Memory Layout 72
Chapter A64.6: Pointers to Memory 75
Pointers Revisited 75
Addressing Types 76
Registers Revisited 81
NULL Pointers 82
Invalid Pointers 83
Variables as Pointers 84
Pointer Initialization 85
Initialized and Uninitialized Data 86
More Pseudo Notation 87
“MemoryPointers” Project: Memory Layout 88
Chapter A64.7: Logical Instructions and PC 99
Instruction Format 99
Logical Shift Instructions 100
Logical Operations 101
Zeroing Memory or Registers 102
Instruction Pointer 103
Code Section 105
Chapter A64.8: Reconstructing a Program with Pointers 107
Example of Disassembly Output: No Optimization 107
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: Part 1 110
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: Part 2 112
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: Part 3 114
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: C/C++ program 116
Example of Disassembly Output: Optimized Program 117
Chapter A64.9: Memory and Stacks 119
Stack: A Definition 119
Stack Implementation in Memory 120
Things to Remember 122
Stack Push Implementation 123
Stack Pop Implementation 124
Register Review 125
Application Memory Simplified 126
Stack Overflow 127
Jumps 128
Calls 130
Call Stack 131
Exploring Stack in GDB 133
Chapter A64.10: Frame Pointer and Local Variables 137
Stack Usage 137
Register Review 138
Addressing Array Elements 139
Stack Structure (No Function Parameters) 140
Function Prolog 141
Raw Stack (No Local Variables and Function Parameters) 142
Function Epilog 144
“Local Variables” Project 145
Disassembly of Optimized Executable 148
Chapter A64.11: Function Parameters 149
“FunctionParameters” Project 149
Stack Structure 150
Function Prolog and Epilog 152
Project Disassembled Code with Comments 154
Parameter Mismatch Problem 158
Chapter A64.12: More Instructions 159
PSTATE Flags 159
Testing for 0 160
TST - Logical Compare 161
CMP – Compare Two Operands 162
TST or CMP? 163
Conditional Jumps 164
Function Return Value 165
Chapter A64.13: Function Pointer Parameters 167
“FunctionPointerParameters” Project 167
Commented Disassembly 168
Chapter A64.14: Summary of Code Disassembly Patterns 173
Function Prolog / Epilog 173
ADR (Address) 174
Passing Parameters 175
Accessing Saved Parameters and Local Variables 176
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