Practical Foundations of Linux Debugging, Disassembling, Reversing
Practical Foundations of Linux Debugging, Disassembling, Reversing
Training Course
About the Book
This training course is a Linux version of the previous Practical Foundations of Windows Debugging, Disassembly, Reversing book. It also complements Accelerated Linux Core Dump Analysis training course.
Although the book skeleton is the same as its Windows predecessor, the content was revised entirely because of a different operating system, debugger (GDB), toolchain (GCC, assembler, linker), application binary interface, and even an assembly language flavor, AT&T.
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
- 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 x64 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 x64.1: Memory, Registers, and Simple Arithmetic 11
Memory and Registers inside an Idealized Computer 11
Memory and Registers inside Intel 64-bit PC 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 17
“Arithmetic” Project: Adding Numbers to Memory Cells 18
Incrementing/Decrementing Numbers in Memory and Registers 21
Multiplying Numbers 24
Chapter x64.2: Code Optimization 27
“Arithmetic” Project: C/C++ Program 27
Downloading GDB 28
GDB Disassembly Output – No Optimization 29
GDB Disassembly Output – Optimization 32
Chapter x64.3: Number Representations 33
Numbers and Their Representations 33
Decimal Representation (Base Ten) 34
Ternary Representation (Base Three) 35
Binary Representation (Base Two) 36
Hexadecimal Representation (Base Sixteen) 37
Why are Hexadecimals used? 38
Chapter x64.4: Pointers 41
A Definition 41
“Pointers” Project: Memory Layout and Registers 42
“Pointers” Project: Calculations 43
Using Pointers to Assign Numbers to Memory Cells 44
Adding Numbers Using Pointers 50
Incrementing Numbers Using Pointers 53
Multiplying Numbers Using Pointers 56
Chapter x64.5: Bytes, Words, Double, and Quad Words 61
Using Hexadecimal Numbers 61
Byte Granularity 62
Bit Granularity 63
Memory Layout 64
Chapter x64.6: Pointers to Memory 67
Pointers Revisited 67
Addressing Types 68
Registers Revisited 73
NULL Pointers 74
Invalid Pointers 75
Variables as Pointers 76
Pointer Initialization 77
Initialized and Uninitialized Data 78
More Pseudo Notation 79
“MemoryPointers” Project: Memory Layout 80
Chapter x64.7: Logical Instructions and RIP 89
Instruction Format 89
Logical Shift Instructions 90
Logical Operations 91
Zeroing Memory or Registers 92
Instruction Pointer 93
Code Section 95
Chapter x64.8: Reconstructing a Program with Pointers 97
Example of Disassembly Output: No Optimization 97
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: Part 1 99
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: Part 2 101
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: Part 3 103
Reconstructing C/C++ Code: C/C++ program 104
Example of Disassembly Output: Optimized Program 105
Chapter x64.9: Memory and Stacks 107
Stack: A Definition 107
Stack Implementation in Memory 108
Things to Remember 110
PUSH Instruction 111
POP instruction 112
Register Review 113
Application Memory Simplified 115
Stack Overflow 116
Jumps 117
Calls 119
Call Stack 121
Exploring Stack in GDB 123
Chapter x64.10: Frame Pointer and Local Variables 127
Stack Usage 127
Register Review 128
Addressing Array Elements 129
Stack Structure (No Function Parameters) 130
Function Prolog 131
Raw Stack (No Local Variables and Function Parameters) 132
Function Epilog 134
“Local Variables” Project 135
Disassembly of Optimized Executable 138
Chapter x64.11: Function Parameters 139
“FunctionParameters” Project 139
Stack Structure 140
Function Prolog and Epilog 142
Project Disassembled Code with Comments 144
Parameter Mismatch Problem 147
Chapter x64.12: More Instructions 149
CPU Flags Register 149
The Fast Way to Fill Memory 150
Testing for 0 152
TEST - Logical Compare 153
CMP – Compare Two Operands 154
TEST or CMP? 155
Conditional Jumps 156
The Structure of Registers 157
Function Return Value 158
Using Byte Registers 159
Chapter x64.13: Function Pointer Parameters 161
“FunctionPointerParameters” Project 161
Commented Disassembly 162
Chapter x64.14: Summary of Code Disassembly Patterns 169
Function Prolog / Epilog 169
LEA (Load Effective Address) 171
Passing Parameters 172
Accessing Parameters and Local Variables 173
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