Why my code will crash at the end of the start function? - linux

Test platform is 32 bit Linux.
Basically, I did a modification to the asm code gcc generated to change the entry point from main to start as below:
asm code:
.file "test.c"
.intel_syntax noprefix
.section .rodata
.LC0:
.string "%d\n"
.text
.globl start
.type start, #function
start:
push ebp
mov ebp, esp
call main
mov eax, 0
leave
ret
.size start, .-start
.globl main
.type main, #function
main:
push ebp
mov ebp, esp
and esp, -16
sub esp, 32
mov DWORD PTR [esp+28], 1
mov eax, OFFSET FLAT:.LC0
mov edx, DWORD PTR [esp+28]
mov DWORD PTR [esp+4], edx
mov DWORD PTR [esp], eax
call printf
mov eax, 0
Then I use these to compile and link:
as test.s -g -o test.o
ld -o test test.o -lc -dynamic-linker /lib/ld-linux.so.2 -e start
When debug using gdb, it can successfully work until the end of start function,
then from the debug info it seems that $EIP don't know where to jump next, and
segment fault occurs...
Could anyone give me some help on this issue..?
Thank you a lot!

you should call exit instead of set eax to 0 and return, because you don't use C main function(C-runtime), so nowhere to return.

Related

dlsym crash when called from assembler

I have a small program in assembler that loads an .so file using dlopen, and then tries to load a function pointer using dlsym. Calling dlopen seems to be fine but it crashes when I call dlsym.
SECTION .text
;default rel
EXTERN dlopen ; loads a dynamic library
EXTERN dlsym ; retrieves the address for a symbol in the dynamic library
; inputs:
; rdi: rdi the pointer to print
printHex:
sub rsp, 19 ; allocate space for the string 0x0123456789ABCDEF\n
mov BYTE [rsp + 0], '0'
mov BYTE [rsp + 1], 'x'
xor rcx, rcx ; int loop variable to 0
.LOOP1:
lea rsi, [rsp + rcx] ; rsi will we the offset where we will store the next hex charcter
mov rax, rdi
and rax, 0xf
sar rdi, 4 ; shift right 4 bits (divide by 16)
lea rdx, [hexLookUp + rax]
mov bl, [rdx]
mov BYTE [rsi +18], bl
dec rcx ; rcx--
cmp rcx, -16 ; while rcx > -16
jne .LOOP1
mov BYTE [rsp + 18], 10
; print
mov rax, 1 ; syscall: write
mov rdi, 1 ; stdout
mov rsi, rsp
mov rdx, 19
syscall
; release stack memory
add rsp, 19
ret
global _start ; "global" means that the symbol can be accessed in other modules. In order to refer to a global symbol from another module, you must use the "extern" keyboard
_start:
; load the library
mov rdi, str_libX11so
mov rsi, 2; RTLD_NOW=2
call dlopen wrt ..plt
; PLT stands for Procedure Linkage Table:
; used to call external library functions whose address is not know at link time,
; so it must be resolved by the dynamic linker at run time
; more info: https://reverseengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/1992/what-is-plt-got
mov [ptr_libX11so], rax ; the previous function call returned the value in rax
mov rdi, rax
call printHex
; load the function
mov rdi, [str_libX11so]
mov rsi, fstr_XOpenDisplay
call dlsym wrt ..plt
mov [fptr_XOpenDisplay], rax
mov rdi, rax
call printHex
mov rax, 60 ; syscal: exit
mov rdi, 0 ; return code
syscall
hexLookUp: db "0123456789ABCDEF"
str_libX11so: db "libX11.so", 0
; X11 function names
fstr_XOpenDisplay: db "XOpenDisplay", 0
SECTION .data
ptr_libX11so: dq 0 ; ptr to the X11 library
; X11 function ptrs
fptr_XOpenDisplay: dq 0
I have tried to make the same program in C and it seems to work. So I must be doing something wrong.
extern void* dlopen(const char* name, int);
extern void* dlsym(void* restrict handle, const char* restrict name);
int main()
{
void* libX11so = dlopen("libX11.so", 2);
void (*XOpenDisplay)() = dlsym(libX11so, "XOpenDisplay");
}
I tried to disassemble the C version and compare, but I can't still figure out what is the problem.
An interesting thing I noticed is that the pointer returned by dlopen (which is different in each execution), in the asm version is quite small compared to the C version (e.g 0x0000000001A932D vs 0x5555555592d0). But maybe that could be because I'm using the -no-pie flag for linking:
nasm -f elf64 -g -F dwarf minimal.asm && gcc -nostartfiles -no-pie minimal.o -ldl -o minimal && ./minimal
I just noticed my mistake:
; load the function
mov rdi, [str_libX11so]
should be:
; load the function
mov rdi, [ptr_libX11so]

Why does this NASM assembly program print nothing

I have the following assembly, which I assemble with NASM and then link with gcc:
section .text
extern printf
global main
main:
sub rsp, 8 ;align stack pointer
mov rax, 0 ;no vector arguments
mov rdi, intro_message ;First argument
call printf
mov rax, 60 ;exit
syscall
section .data
intro_message:
db 'Hello world',0
When I run ./a.out, nothing is printed, and the instruction pointer seems to have moved to an invalid location. What have I done wrong?

Printing `argv[]` with nasm

I'm trying to print the command line arguments given to my program, using nasm:
GLOBAL main
EXTERN printf
section .rodata
fmt db "Argument: %s", 10, 0
section .text
main:
push ebp ; push ebp0
mov ebp, esp ; [ebp1] == ebp0
push dword[ebp+8] ; push argc
call print_args
mov eax, 0 ; return(0)
mov esp, ebp ; pop
pop ebp ; stack frame
ret
print_args:
push ebp ; pusheo ebp1
mov ebp, esp ; [ebp2] == ebp1
mov edi, dword[ebp+8] ; [ebp+8] == argc
jmp lop
postlop:
mov esp, ebp
pop ebp
ret
lop:
sub edi, 1
cmp edi, 0
jz postlop
mov esi, [ebp] ; [esi] == ebp1
mov ebx, [esi + 12] ; [esi+12] = [ebp1+12] = argv[0]?
push ebx
push fmt
call printf
jmp lop
However, this prints only garbage (I believe this should print argv[0], argc-1 times.).
I'm compiling my code with:
nasm -f elf32 main.asm
gcc -m32 main.o -o main.out
What is wrong?
By the way, using dword[ebp+8] works correctly to pick up argc.
I'm running this on ubuntu. Program does output Argument: ... argc-1 times, but the ... is garbage.
Just like [epb+8]is argc, [esi + 12] is argv, i.e. the address of the array of argument adresses. Thus, in order to find argv[0], you have to dereference once more.
mov esi, [ebp] ; [esi] == ebp1
mov ebx, [esi + 12] ; [esi+12] = [ebp1+12] = argv
push dword [ebx] ; [ebx] = argv[0]
;^^^^^^^^^^^
push fmt
call printf
I worked on this and this is all you need
Assemble as so. On my 32-bit debian 9 VM:
$ nasm -felf32 -g args.s -o args.o
$ gcc -no-pie args.o -o args
segment .data
format db "%s",0x0a,0
segment .text
global main ; let the linker know about main
extern printf ; resolve printf from libc
main:
push ebp ; prepare stack frame for main
mov ebp, esp
sub esp, 8
mov edi, dword[ebp+8] ; get argc into edi
mov esi, dword[ebp+12] ; get first argv string into esi
start_loop:
xor eax, eax
push dword [esi] ; must dereference esi; points to argv
push format
call printf
add esi, 4 ; advance to the next pointer in argv
dec edi ; decrement edi from argc to 0
cmp edi, 0 ; when it hits 0, we're done
jnz start_loop ; end with NULL pointer
end_loop:
xor eax, eax
leave
ret

nasm calling subroutine from another file

I'm doing a project that attaches a subroutine that I wrote to a main file included by the teacher. He gave us the instructions for making our subroutine global but apparently I'm an idiot. The two asm files are in the same folder, I'm using nasm -f elf -g prt_dec.asm and ld prt_dec and then doing the same for main.asm. Here's the relevant code in the main.asm:
SECTION .text ; Code section.
global _start ; let loader see entry point
extern prt_dec
_start:
mov ebx, 17
mov edx, 214123
mov edi, 2223187809
mov ebp, 1555544444
mov eax, dword 0x0
call prt_dec
call prt_lf
The line call prt_dec throws "undefined reference to prt_dec" when i use ld main.o
Here's the a code segment from my prt_dec.asm:
Section .text
global prt_dec
global _start
start:
prt_dec:
(pushing some stuff)
L1_top:
(code continues)
You want to call a routine in another asm file or object file?
if you are Assembling prt_dec.asm and are linking multiple asm files to use in your main program, here is a sample, 2 asm files Assembled and linked together... * NOTE * hello.asm *DOES NOT * have a start label!
Main asm file: hellothere.asm
sys_exit equ 1
extern Hello
global _start
section .text
_start:
call Hello
mov eax, sys_exit
xor ebx, ebx
int 80H
Second asm file: hello.asm
sys_write equ 4
stdout equ 1
global Hello
section .data
szHello db "Hello", 10
Hello_Len equ ($ - szHello)
section .text
Hello:
mov edx, Hello_Len
mov ecx, szHello
mov eax, sys_write
mov ebx, stdout
int 80H
ret
makefile:
APP = hellothere
$(APP): $(APP).o hello.o
ld -o $(APP) $(APP).o hello.o
$(APP).o: $(APP).asm
nasm -f elf $(APP).asm
hello.o: hello.asm
nasm -f elf hello.asm
Now, if you just want to separate your code into multiple asm files, you can include them into your main source: with %include "asmfile.asm" at the beginning of your main source file and just assemble and link your main file.

how does this assembly proc not crash?

I have this linux nasm code here that doesn't crash. With the ret 80 instruction at the end of printString shouldn't this program crash?
bits 32
section .data
hello: db 'Hello Linux assembly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!',10,0
helloLen: equ $-hello
anotherString db "hello im another string!!!!",10,0
anotherStringlen equ $-anotherString
section .text
global _start
_start:
push hello
push helloLen
call printString
;;;; should i pop the two paramters I pushed?
;;;; does the ret instruction do it for me?
push anotherString
push anotherStringlen
call printString
call exit
printString:
push ebp
mov ebp, esp
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, [ebp+12]
mov edx, [ebp+8]
int 80h
pop ebp
ret 60 ;;;;; How does this not make printString crash?
exit:
mov eax,1
mov ebx,0
int 80h
Doing things incorrectly in assembly language by no means assures that you'll get a crash.
The ret 60 instruction pops the wrong number of values off the stack after returning. However, the next things you do don't assume that there are any values of use on the stack. For instance, the exit function won't care that the stack is trashed, and will still exit your process.

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