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27 min
A no_std Rust binary
👋 This page was last updated ~5 years ago. Just so you know.
In Part 11, we spent some time clarifying mechanisms we had previously glossed over: how variables and functions from other ELF objects were accessed at runtime.
We saw that doing so "proper" required the cooperation of the compiler, the assembler, the linker, and the dynamic loader. We also learned that the mechanism for functions was actually quite complicated! And sorta clever!
And finally, we ignored all the cleverness and "made things work" with a
three-line change, adding support for both GlobDat and JumpSlot
relocations.
We're not done with relocations yet, of course - but I think we've earned ourselves a little break. There's plenty of other things we've been ignoring so far!
For example... how are command-line arguments passed to an executable?
Cool bear's hot tip
Ooh, ooh, that's easy!
The main() function gets an int argc argument, and a char **argv
argument!
Ah, of course cool bear. One little problem though... we have no main.
// in `samples/chimera/chimera.c`
void _start(void) {
// (cut)
}
Remember, since we're staying away from libc, we have to come up with our
own entry point - named _start by convention. It takes no arguments, and
returns nothing - in fact, it never returns.
And it was the same thing in assembly:
; in `samples/hello-dl.asm`
global _start
extern msg
section .text
_start:
mov rdi, 1 ; stdout fd
mov rsi, msg
mov rdx, 38 ; 37 chars + newline
mov rax, 1 ; write syscall
syscall
xor rdi, rdi ; return code 0
mov rax, 60 ; exit syscall
syscall
...how in the world do you get a program's command-line arguments in assembly?
Cool bear's hot tip
I uhh.. yeah. Good point.
Well, let's find that out, shall we? We've been dealing with ELF long enough to know where to look...
Let's take elk itself as an example. It's a pretty standard Rust binary.
First let's find its entry point:
$ readelf -h ./target/debug/elk | grep Entry
Entry point address: 0x10080
Easy enough. Is it a named symbol?
$ nm ./target/debug/elk | grep 10080
0000000000010080 T _start
Yeah! Pretty standard stuff. This is going to be an easy article, I can feel it.
Cool bear's hot tip
looks at article's title
If you say so...
Let's disassemble it:
$ objdump --disassemble=_start ./target/debug/elk
; (cut)
0000000000010080 <_start>:
10080: f3 0f 1e fa endbr64
10084: 31 ed xor ebp,ebp
10086: 49 89 d1 mov r9,rdx
10089: 5e pop rsi
1008a: 48 89 e2 mov rdx,rsp
1008d: 48 83 e4 f0 and rsp,0xfffffffffffffff0
10091: 50 push rax
10092: 54 push rsp
10093: 4c 8d 05 76 5d 0e 00 lea r8,[rip+0xe5d76] # f5e10 <__libc_csu_fini>
1009a: 48 8d 0d ff 5c 0e 00 lea rcx,[rip+0xe5cff] # f5da0 <__libc_csu_init>
100a1: 48 8d 3d 88 3f 01 00 lea rdi,[rip+0x13f88] # 24030 <main>
100a8: ff 15 1a 7e 12 00 call QWORD PTR [rip+0x127e1a] # 137ec8 <__libc_start_main@GLIBC_2.2.5>
100ae: f4 hlt
Well well well, what do we have here?
We've seen endbr64 before - aaaaaall the way back in Part
3 - it just means "this is a valid
jump target".
So far, so good.
To make sense of the rest, we need to notice that the whole thing ends
with a call to __libc_start_main@GLIBC_2.2.5 - that's the juicy bit.
Cool bear's hot tip
Note that the very next instruction is hlt - halt and catch
fire. We
really don't expect to return from _start.
So, what arguments does __libc_start_main take?
The Linux Standard Base Specification 5.0 tells us what it should take. I've formatted it for readability:
int __libc_start_main(int (*main)(int, char**, char**),
int argc,
char** ubp_av,
void (*init)(void),
void (*fini)(void),
void (*rtld_fini)(void),
void(*stack_end));
So, let's see... if we map those to the calling convention for the System V AMD64 ABI, for
"INTEGER" class arguments (works for both int arguments and pointers), this is what our
registers and stack look like right before calling __libc_start_main:
Cool bear's hot tip
Throughout this whole article, whenever we write foo %rax, we mean "the register named rax".
It's a bit confusing, because in GDB, you can print registers with the syntax $rax,
and when looking at disassembly in Intel syntax, registers are just written rax.
Then again, x86 register names are just plain confusing to begin with.
My advice? Just bathe in it. Take it all in. Bask in the glorious mess that is x86 and come out; not only stronger, but wiser too.
Let's go back to the beginning of _start and walk through it, instruction
by instruction:
xor ebp,ebp
%rbp is the frame pointer on AMD64. To be quite honest, I'm not sure why
it's being cleared here - in my test runs, it appears to already be zero by
that point.
mov r9,rdx
%r9 corresponds to the rtld_fini argument - it's a finalizer function from the runtime loader (rtld),
which is passed to _start through the %rdx register.
pop rsi
This pops a 64-bit value off the stack and stores it in %rsi - so that's
where argc comes from!
After all, there weren't that many possibilities: either argc and argv
were passed via registers, or via the stack.
In a way, an ELF executable is "just a function", with a funny calling convention.
mov rdx,rsp
This sets the ubp_av argument to the current stack pointer.
It's more or less argv, more on that later.
and rsp,0xfffffffffffffff0
Simon System V AMD64 ABI says: the stack must be 16-byte-aligned before calling
a function. That's exactly what this instruction does.
push rax
This one was a riddle... what the hell is in %rax at that point (0x1c, or so
GDB tells me), and why is it pushed on the stack?? Is it some sort of canary?
Turns out - and I'm quoting here - that, nope:
Push garbage because we push 8 more bytes.
So this push is just there to maintain 16-byte alignment because another 8 bytes
are pushed before calling __libc_start_main.
push rsp
This sets up stack_end. I'm assuming glibc uses that to set up some sort of stack
smashing protection. An assumption
that would be very easy to verify for anyone who, unlike me, is willing to dive back
in glibc's source code at this point in time.
lea r8,[rip+0xf7b26] # 106c90 <__libc_csu_fini>
lea rcx,[rip+0xf7aaf] # 106c20 <__libc_csu_init>
lea rdi,[rip+0x79df8] # 88f70 <main>
This sets up the remaining arguments: main, init, fini.
call QWORD PTR [rip+0x13bae2] # 14ac60 <__libc_start_main@GLIBC_2.2.5>
hlt
With all arguments set up and the stack 16-byte-aligned, it finally calls
__libc_start_main.
So, the mystery is solved: the way command-line arguments (and environment variables) are passed to executables is: via the stack.
And what a stack it is:
Well, that sounds easy enough! Let's make a program that prints its arguments without using libc at all.
I don't feel like writing assembly at all, though. And I don't feel like writing C... ever, really?
So let's go with rust.
We'll call this sample echidna:
$ cd samples/
$ cargo new echidna
Now, normally, Rust binaries depend on libstd, which provides niceties
like, you know, data structures, strings, file APIs, many many things in
fact. Including a memory allocator. This'll be fun.
Cool bear's hot tip
Ohhhhhhhhhh boy here we go.
But where we're going, we don't want libstd - because it relies on libc.
We want its minimal counterpart, libcore.
For that - and a lot of other crimes we're about to commit - we're going to need rust nightly.
Luckily, we can simply add a toolchain
file
to make sure it's used to compile echidna. In
samples/echidna/rust-toolchain, let's put:
[toolchain]
channel = "nightly"
components = [ "rustfmt", "clippy" ]
targets = [ "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu" ]
And let's get started! I'm being told to "opt into no_std" (really, opt out
of libstd), you need the crate-level no_std attribute:
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![no_std]
fn main() {
println!("Hello, world!");
}
Nice!
$ cargo b
cargo b
Compiling echidna v0.1.0 (/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna)
error: cannot find macro `println` in this scope
--> src/main.rs:4:5
|
4 | println!("Hello, world!");
| ^^^^^^^
error: `#[panic_handler]` function required, but not found
error: language item required, but not found: `eh_personality`
error: aborting due to 3 previous errors
error: could not compile `echidna`.
To learn more, run the command again with --verbose.
Ah. We don't have println. Okay, we just won't do anything then!
We also need to add an eh_personality and a panic_handler - we'll keep it
simple for now.
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![no_std]
fn main() {}
#[lang = "eh_personality"]
fn eh_personality() {}
#[panic_handler]
fn panic(_info: &core::panic::PanicInfo) -> ! {
loop {}
}
$ cargo b
Compiling echidna v0.1.0 (/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna)
error[E0658]: language items are subject to change
--> src/main.rs:5:1
|
5 | #[lang = "eh_personality"]
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|
= help: add `#![feature(lang_items)]` to the crate attributes to enable
Ohhh here we go, opting into unstable features. Let's add it to the top of
main.rs and try again:
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![feature(lang_items)]
// omitted: rest of file
$ cargo b
Compiling echidna v0.1.0 (/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna)
error: requires `start` lang_item
Mhh. I think we'll make our own entry point. With tea, and scones. That's right, british friends, I gave tea a try. It's okay with milk and lemon.
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![no_main]
// omitted: rest of file
$ cargo b
Compiling echidna v0.1.0 (/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna)
warning: function is never used: `main`
--> src/main.rs:5:4
|
5 | fn main() {}
| ^^^^
|
= note: `#[warn(dead_code)]` on by default
error: linking with `cc` failed: exit code: 1
|
= note: "cc" "-Wl,--as-needed" "-Wl,-z,noexecstack" "-m64" "-Wl,--eh-frame-hdr" "-L" "/home/amos/.rustup/toolchains/nightly-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/rustlib/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib" "/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna/target/debug/deps/echidna-c61abc523ab4bb6d.4yduu4srhziqnaxv.rcgu.o" "-o" "/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna/target/debug/deps/echidna-c61abc523ab4bb6d" "-Wl,--gc-sections" "-pie" "-Wl,-zrelro" "-Wl,-znow" "-nodefaultlibs" "-L" "/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna/target/debug/deps" "-L" "/home/amos/.rustup/toolchains/nightly-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/rustlib/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib" "-Wl,-Bstatic" "/home/amos/.rustup/toolchains/nightly-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/rustlib/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/librustc_std_workspace_core-90996f4879673567.rlib" "/home/amos/.rustup/toolchains/nightly-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/rustlib/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/libcore-9ea09a899c3eda46.rlib" "/home/amos/.rustup/toolchains/nightly-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/rustlib/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/libcompiler_builtins-ea377e9224b11a8a.rlib" "-Wl,-Bdynamic"
= note: /usr/sbin/ld: /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/10.2.0/../../../../lib/Scrt1.o: in function `_start':
/usr/src/debug/glibc-2.32/csu/../sysdeps/x86_64/start.S:101: undefined reference to `__libc_csu_fini'
/usr/sbin/ld: /usr/src/debug/glibc-2.32/csu/../sysdeps/x86_64/start.S:102: undefined reference to `__libc_csu_init'
/usr/sbin/ld: /usr/src/debug/glibc-2.32/csu/../sysdeps/x86_64/start.S:104: undefined reference to `main'
/usr/sbin/ld: /usr/src/debug/glibc-2.32/csu/../sysdeps/x86_64/start.S:120: undefined reference to `__libc_start_main'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
Ha! An error from GNU ld! Long time no see, friend.
Those symbols seem very familiar. They're part of the _start prelude
we've just analyzed. That means Rust still attempts to pull in part of
libc, even in a no_std environment.
That won't do, of course.
There's four ways to work around this:
The first way is to wait for this PR to land, but we don't have that kind of time.
The second way is to export RUSTFLAGS:
$ export RUSTFLAGS="-C link-arg=-nostartfiles"
This is a tad annoying, because it'll affect all our dependencies, even
build scripts - which might break other crates. And we'd have to remember
to set it anytime we want to build echidna.
The third way is to create a .cargo/config file:
# samples/echidna/.cargo/config
[target.'cfg(target_os = "linux")']
rustflags = ["-C", "link-arg=-nostartfiles"]
This is equivalent to the second way, except we don't have to remember to set it. But it'd still break other crates.
The fourth way is to.. add a build script to pass a linker argument.
// in `samples/echidna/build.rs`
fn main() {
// don't link with stdlib
println!("cargo:rustc-link-arg-bin=echidna=-nostartfiles");
}
Cool bear's hot tip
This used to be accessible via a link_args feature, but it was removed, see this discussion.
Thanks to ralismark on GitHub for noting that!
$ cargo b
Compiling echidna v0.1.0 (/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna)
warning: function is never used: `main`
--> src/main.rs:5:4
|
5 | fn main() {}
| ^^^^
|
= note: `#[warn(dead_code)]` on by default
Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.09s
Hey, it built!
Does it run?
$ ./target/debug/echidna
[1] 78911 segmentation fault (core dumped) ./target/debug/echidna
Absolutely not. Gotta start somewhere!
On the plus side, it's positively tiny - and that's a debug build!
$ ls -lhA ./target/debug/echidna
-rwxr-xr-x 2 amos amos 14K Jan 31 13:19 ./target/debug/echidna
Cool bear's hot tip
In release mode, and after stripping debug symbols, it's down to 8.8K!
It still crashes, but you know. Can't have everything.
So let's start at the beginning! What's the entry point for our freshly-built binary?
$ readelf -h ./target/debug/echidna | grep Entry
Entry point address: 0x0
Ah, well, there's your problem!
We didn't even see the warning from GNU ld. Sneaky sneaky cargo.
I guess just the usual - rename main to _start?
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![no_std]
#![no_main]
#![feature(lang_items)]
fn _start() {}
// etc.
$ cargo b -q
$ readelf -h ./target/debug/echidna | grep Entry
Entry point address: 0x0
No dice. Make it pub?
$ cargo b -q
$ readelf -h ./target/debug/echidna | grep Entry
Entry point address: 0x0
Still the same.
Mhhhhh.
Ah! That'll do it.
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![no_std]
#![no_main]
#![feature(lang_items)]
#[no_mangle]
pub fn _start() {}
$ cargo b -q
$ readelf -h ./target/debug/echidna | grep Entry
Entry point address: 0x1000
Wonderful!
Of course, it still crashes. But we do have an entry point now.
You know the drill by now - how do we make syscalls when we don't have a standard library? With inline assembly!
RFC 2873 finally gave Rust an inline assembly syntax that isn't just LLVM inline assembly with glasses and a mustache.
We'll put our syscall wrappers in a support module:
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
use core::arch::asm;
// reminder: `!` is the `never` type - this indicates
// that `exit` never returns.
pub unsafe fn exit(code: i32) -> ! {
let syscall_number: u64 = 60;
asm!(
"syscall",
in("rax") syscall_number,
in("rdi") code,
options(noreturn)
)
}
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![no_std]
#![no_main]
#![feature(lang_items)]
mod support;
use support::*;
#[no_mangle]
// new: now unsafe!
pub unsafe fn _start() {
exit(0);
}
// omitted: eh_personality, panic_handler, etc.
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/debug/echidna
$ echo $?
0
Hurray!
So, what can we do now that we have a no_std rust program? What were
we trying do to again? Oh right, print our arguments.
Well... they're on the stack. But how are we going to access them?
The minute we declare local variables in _start, it's game over -
the function prelude will reserve space for them, and we'll have lost
the initial value of %rsp forever.
So what are we to do? Use more inline assembly, of course!
We'll make another function that takes a single argument: the address of the "top of the stack" (which always appears at the bottom of our diagrams, since the stack grows down for us).
Let's go:
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#![feature(naked_functions)]
#[no_mangle]
#[naked]
// new: now extern "C"
pub unsafe extern "C" fn _start() {
asm!("mov rdi, rsp", "call main", options(noreturn))
}
#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe fn main(stack_top: *const u8) {
let argc = *(stack_top as *const u64);
exit(argc as _);
}
As usual, we're using exit as our communication channel with the outside
world, since it's the easiest thing to do.
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/debug/echidna; echo $?
1
$ ./target/debug/echidna foo; echo $?
2
$ ./target/debug/echidna foo bar; echo $?
3
$ ./target/debug/echidna foo bar baz; echo $?
4
But we can do better.
Rust is comfy.
Let's make ourselves a comfy no_std nest and then hibernate in it.
We're going to need... a wrapper for the write syscall, and an
strlen implementation at the very least:
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
pub const STDOUT_FILENO: u32 = 1;
pub unsafe fn write(fd: u32, buf: *const u8, count: usize) {
let syscall_number: u64 = 1;
asm!(
"syscall",
in("rax") syscall_number,
in("rdi") fd,
in("rsi") buf,
in("rdx") count,
// Linux syscalls don't touch the stack at all, so
// we don't care about its alignment
options(nostack)
);
}
pub unsafe fn strlen(mut s: *const u8) -> usize {
let mut count = 0;
while *s != b'\0' {
count += 1;
s = s.add(1);
}
count
}
And with those, we can start printing arguments one by one:
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe fn main(stack_top: *const u8) {
let argc = *(stack_top as *const u64);
let argv = stack_top.add(8) as *const *const u8;
use core::slice::from_raw_parts as mkslice;
let args = mkslice(argv, argc as usize);
for &arg in args {
write(STDOUT_FILENO, arg, strlen(arg));
}
exit(argc as _);
}
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/debug/echidna foo bar baz; echo $?
./target/debug/echidnafoobarbaz4
Well... it does print them.
..but first - this is our first no_std program ever, it links to nothing:
$ ldd ./target/debug/echidna
statically linked
I'd like to know if it builds and runs in release mode (ie. with optimizations).
$ cargo b --release
$
./target/release/echidna[1] 141955 segmentation fault (core dumped) ./target/rele
ase/echidna
Mhhh no dice.
The heck is happening?
It's possible to guess what's going wrong just by this picture. And
I'm going to give you a chance to guess! To avoid spoilers, I'll let
cool bear tell you about another bug in echidna I wasn't sure I was
even going to mention.
Cool bear's hot tip
Story time!
When amos was prototyping echidna, everything worked fine... for a while.
Then he tried it in release mode, and all hell broke loose. The GDB session
above shows one legitimate problem that was relatively easy to fix, but
then there was another problem.
At that point in the code, there was a struct with two u64 fields, like so:
struct S {
a: u64,
b: u64,
}
And it was dereferenced, moved around and the like. It being a 128-bit wide
type, LLVM thought it'd be smart and use the xmm0 register, so it could
be moved in one fell swoop.
But it was generating the movdqa instruction, like so:
movdqa XMMWORD PTR [rsp],xmm0
...but by that point, %rsp wasn't 16-byte-aligned, only 8-byte-aligned.
And the a in movdqa stands for "aligned". So it segfaulted. (That's
a segfault you don't see often!).
So amos went fishing with GDB. %rsp was 16-byte-aligned at the beginning of
_start (as expected), it was 16-byte-aligned at the beginning of main...
but it wasn't aligned right before the movdqa.
As it turns out, amos had misunderstood the System V AMD64 ABI.
_start was doing that:
_start:
mov rsi, rsp
jmp main
...which is wrong. You see, main expects to be called, not just jumped to.
And call pushes the address to return to onto the stack.
So function prologues (generated by LLVM for every Rust function) actually expect
%rsp to be unaligned, and compensate when allocating local storage: they
reserve 8+16*n bytes, which re-aligns %rsp.
TL;DR - even if our main is never supposed to return, we should call it.
Did you figure out the problem?
In debug builds, naive code is generated, and the stack is used for everything, including all local variables, temporaries, etc:
$ objdump --disassemble=main ./target/debug/echidna | head -25
./target/debug/echidna: file format elf64-x86-64
Disassembly of section .text:
00000000000014a0 <main>:
14a0: 48 81 ec 98 00 00 00 sub rsp,0x98
14a7: 48 89 7c 24 58 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x58],rdi
14ac: 48 8b 07 mov rax,QWORD PTR [rdi]
14af: 48 89 44 24 60 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x60],rax
14b4: be 08 00 00 00 mov esi,0x8
14b9: 48 89 44 24 38 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x38],rax
14be: e8 6d fc ff ff call 1130 <_ZN4core3ptr9const_ptr33_$LT$impl$u20$$BP$const$u20$T$GT$3add17h3943ea7b27872d0aE>
14c3: 48 89 44 24 30 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x30],rax
14c8: 48 8b 44 24 30 mov rax,QWORD PTR [rsp+0x30]
14cd: 48 89 44 24 68 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x68],rax
14d2: 48 89 c7 mov rdi,rax
14d5: 48 8b 74 24 38 mov rsi,QWORD PTR [rsp+0x38]
14da: e8 21 fd ff ff call 1200 <_ZN4core5slice3raw14from_raw_parts17h9d473387ae456536E>
14df: 48 89 44 24 70 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x70],rax
14e4: 48 89 54 24 78 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x78],rdx
14e9: 48 89 44 24 28 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x28],rax
14ee: 48 89 54 24 20 mov QWORD PTR [rsp+0x20],rdx
14f3: 48 8b 7c 24 28 mov rdi,QWORD PTR [rsp+0x28]
...but in release mode, LLVM tries very hard to use registers instead:
$ objdump --disassemble=main ./target/release/echidna | head -25
./target/release/echidna: file format elf64-x86-64
Disassembly of section .text:
0000000000001010 <main>:
1010: 48 83 ec 08 sub rsp,0x8
1014: 4c 8b 07 mov r8,QWORD PTR [rdi]
1017: 4a 8d 04 c5 00 00 00 lea rax,[r8*8+0x0]
101e: 00
101f: 48 85 c0 test rax,rax
1022: 74 48 je 106c <main+0x5c>
1024: 48 89 f9 mov rcx,rdi
1027: 4e 8d 0c c7 lea r9,[rdi+r8*8]
102b: 49 83 c1 08 add r9,0x8
102f: 48 83 c1 08 add rcx,0x8
1033: bf 01 00 00 00 mov edi,0x1
1038: 48 8b 31 mov rsi,QWORD PTR [rcx]
103b: 48 83 c1 08 add rcx,0x8
103f: 80 3e 00 cmp BYTE PTR [rsi],0x0
1042: 0f 85 08 00 00 00 jne 1050 <main+0x40>
1048: 31 d2 xor edx,edx
104a: e9 11 00 00 00 jmp 1060 <main+0x50>
104f: 90 nop
And we've been writing inline assembly code... that uses registers... and we haven't told LLVM which registers we were using exactly.
pub unsafe fn write(fd: u32, buf: *const u8, count: usize) {
let syscall_number: u64 = 1;
asm!(
"syscall",
in("rax") syscall_number,
in("rdi") fd,
in("rsi") buf,
in("rdx") count,
options(nostack)
);
}
...I mean, sure, we've told it about our inputs: %rdi, %rsi, and %rdx,
but we neglected to mention that syscalls return their value in %rax,
and that they don't preserve the values of %rcx and %r11.
We could get away with it in debug mode, but not in release "registers are a scarce resource, spill me baby" mode.
In that mode, LLVM uses %rcx for a local variable, which gets silently
corrupted, and then all hell breaks loose:
; 👇 woops!
1038: 48 8b 31 mov rsi,QWORD PTR [rcx]
103b: 48 83 c1 08 add rcx,0x8
103f: 80 3e 00 cmp BYTE PTR [rsi],0x0
1042: 0f 85 08 00 00 00 jne 1050 <main+0x40>
So, let's specify our "clobbers" (which registers aren't preserved), for both our syscall wrappers.
Cool bear's hot tip
Wait... both of them? Doesn't exit never return?
Ah, right! taps head Don't need to specify clobbers if your asm block never returns!
Just for write then:
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
pub unsafe fn write(fd: u32, buf: *const u8, count: usize) {
let syscall_number: u64 = 1;
asm!(
"syscall",
// was `in("rax")`
inout("rax") syscall_number => _, // we don't check the return value
in("rdi") fd,
in("rsi") buf,
in("rdx") count,
// those are both new:
lateout("rcx") _, lateout("r11") _,
options(nostack)
);
}
..and just like that, it works in release mode:
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/release/echidna foo bar baz; echo $?
./target/release/echidnafoobarbaz4
Back to the task at hand: calling the write wrapper by hand isn't very...
handy.
You know what would be cool? Printing u8 slices!
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
pub fn print(s: &[u8]) {
unsafe {
write(STDOUT_FILENO, s.as_ptr(), s.len());
}
}
pub fn println(s: &[u8]) {
print(s);
print(b"\n");
}
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe fn main(stack_top: *const u8) {
let argc = *(stack_top as *const u64);
let argv = stack_top.add(8) as *const *const u8;
use core::slice::from_raw_parts as mkslice;
let args = mkslice(argv, argc as usize);
for &arg in args {
let arg = mkslice(arg, strlen(arg));
println(arg);
}
exit(argc as _);
}
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/debug/echidna foo bar baz; echo $?
./target/debug/echidna
foo
bar
baz
4
Better!
Let's go overkill a little bit - just because we can.
How about printing numbers as well?
Now, before you say anything, I know what you're thinking; "Amos! Just use
core::fmt or something!"
Yeah well. That's not nearly as fun.
Onwards:
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
pub fn print_str(s: &[u8]) {
unsafe {
write(STDOUT_FILENO, s.as_ptr(), s.len());
}
}
pub fn print_num(n: usize) {
if n > 9 {
print_num(n / 10);
}
let c = b'0' + (n % 10) as u8;
print_str(&[c]);
}
pub enum PrintArg<'a> {
String(&'a [u8]),
Number(usize),
}
pub fn print(args: &[PrintArg]) {
for arg in args {
match arg {
PrintArg::String(s) => print_str(s),
PrintArg::Number(n) => print_num(*n),
}
}
}
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe fn main(stack_top: *const u8) {
let argc = *(stack_top as *const u64);
let argv = stack_top.add(8) as *const *const u8;
use core::slice::from_raw_parts as mkslice;
let args = mkslice(argv, argc as usize);
print(&[
PrintArg::String(b"received "),
PrintArg::Number(argc as usize),
PrintArg::String(b" arguments:\n"),
]);
for &arg in args {
let arg = mkslice(arg, strlen(arg));
print(&[
PrintArg::String(b" - "),
PrintArg::String(arg),
PrintArg::String(b"\n"),
])
}
exit(0);
}
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/debug/echidna foo bar baz
received 4 arguments:
- ./target/debug/echidna
- foo
- bar
- baz
Very nice! Very, very nice. We still get to use all the nice Rust things like
iterators, for..in loops, slices, and enums. It's all stack-allocated, so
there's no problem!
But our print is kinda cumbersome to use.
Maybe implementing From will alleviate the problem to some extent?
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
impl<'a> From<usize> for PrintArg<'a> {
fn from(v: usize) -> Self {
PrintArg::Number(v)
}
}
impl<'a> From<&'a [u8]> for PrintArg<'a> {
fn from(v: &'a [u8]) -> Self {
PrintArg::String(v)
}
}
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe fn main(stack_top: *const u8) {
let argc = *(stack_top as *const u64);
let argv = stack_top.add(8) as *const *const u8;
use core::slice::from_raw_parts as mkslice;
let args = mkslice(argv, argc as usize);
print(&[
b"received ".into(),
(argc as usize).into(),
b" arguments:\n".into(),
]);
for &arg in args {
let arg = mkslice(arg, strlen(arg));
print(&[b" - ".into(), arg.into(), b"\n".into()])
}
exit(0);
}
$ cargo b -q
error[E0277]: the trait bound `support::PrintArg<'_>: core::convert::From<&[u8; 9]>` is not satisfied
--> src/main.rs:29:22
|
29 | b"received ".into(),
| ^^^^ the trait `core::convert::From<&[u8; 9]>` is not implemented for `support::PrintArg<'_>`
|
= help: the following implementations were found:
<support::PrintArg<'a> as core::convert::From<&'a [u8]>>
<support::PrintArg<'a> as core::convert::From<usize>>
= note: required because of the requirements on the impl of `core::convert::Into<support::PrintArg<'_>>` for `&[u8; 9]`
error[E0277]: the trait bound `support::PrintArg<'_>: core::convert::From<&[u8; 12]>` is not satisfied
--> src/main.rs:31:26
|
31 | b" arguments:\n".into(),
| ^^^^ the trait `core::convert::From<&[u8; 12]>` is not implemented for `support::PrintArg<'_>`
(cut)
Oh. The type of b"blah" isn't &[u8], it's [u8; N] - in other words,
it's not a slice, it's a fixed-size array.
Well... we're on nightly... nightly has const generics... I'm sure we can work something out...
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
impl<'a, const N: usize> From<&'a [u8; N]> for PrintArg<'a> {
fn from(v: &'a [u8; N]) -> Self {
PrintArg::String(v.as_ref())
}
}
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
// new:
#![feature(const_generics)]
#![allow(incomplete_features)]
// the rest is identical
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/debug/echidna foo bar baz
received 4 arguments:
- ./target/debug/echidna
- foo
- bar
- baz
That's kind of amazing. I had never used const generics before, seems like they do just what it says on the tin.
...but I still don't love those callsites:
print(&[
b"received ".into(),
(argc as usize).into(),
b" arguments:\n".into(),
]);
It's time for... yes? You, in the back, with a mustache? Mackerel? Oh, macros? Yes, yes it is.
Cool bear's hot tip
I mean, either. Or both. Both is good.
readjusts mustache
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
#[macro_export]
macro_rules! print {
($($arg:expr),+) => {
print(&[
$($arg.into()),+
])
};
}
#[macro_export]
macro_rules! println {
($($arg:expr),+) => {
print!($($arg),+,b"\n");
};
}
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe fn main(stack_top: *const u8) {
let argc = *(stack_top as *const u64);
let argv = stack_top.add(8) as *const *const u8;
use core::slice::from_raw_parts as mkslice;
let args = mkslice(argv, argc as usize);
println!(b"received ", argc as usize, b" arguments:");
for &arg in args {
let arg = mkslice(arg, strlen(arg));
println!(b" - ", arg);
}
exit(0);
}
Now that is comfy. I feel right at home.
Sure, our println! is a little different but hey - it's much better than
what we had before!
Let's keep going and print (some) environment variables, along with auxiliary vectors.
Before we go further, we have to pull in one dependency. Although we've
managed to avoid them so far, some methods in libcore depend on builtin
functions like "memcpy" and "memcmp".
The slice::starts_with method requires those, for example.
We have two options there - either keep avoiding those functions, and roll our own versions, like this for example;
fn starts_with<T>(slice: &[T], prefix: &[T]) -> bool
where
T: PartialEq,
{
if slice.len() < prefix.len() {
false
} else {
// this is not an idiomatic for loop - but the for..in
// version using ranges *also* pulls in compiler builtins
// we don't currently have.
let mut i = 0;
while i < prefix.len() {
if slice[i] != prefix[i] {
return false;
}
i += 1;
}
true
}
}
The second option, which we're going to go with, is to use the compiler-builtins crate.
memcpy and friends are optional, so we'll need to opt into its mem feature:
$ cargo add --features mem compiler_builtins
Updating 'https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index' index
Adding compiler_builtins v0.1.26 to dependencies with features: ["mem"]
And just like that, we're good!
Next up, I'd like to add a hexadecimal formatting routine - the same way we had decimal formatting:
// in `samples/echidna/src/support.rs`
pub fn print_hex(n: usize) {
if n > 15 {
print_hex(n / 16);
}
let u = (n % 16) as u8;
let c = match u {
0..=9 => b'0' + u,
_ => b'a' + u - 10,
};
print_str(&[c]);
}
pub enum PrintArg<'a> {
String(&'a [u8]),
Number(usize),
// new!
Hex(usize),
}
pub fn print(args: &[PrintArg]) {
for arg in args {
match arg {
PrintArg::String(s) => print_str(s),
PrintArg::Number(n) => print_num(*n),
// new:
PrintArg::Hex(n) => {
print_str(b"0x");
print_hex(*n);
}
}
}
}
Finally, I'd like a type to deal with auxiliary vectors.
Nothing too fancy, just a simple struct that:
- knows the name of a few entry types
- knows how to format a few entry values: as a decimal number, a hexadecimal number, or as a null-terminated string
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#[derive(PartialEq)]
struct Auxv {
typ: u64,
val: u64,
}
impl Auxv {
fn name(&self) -> &[u8] {
match self.typ {
2 => b"AT_EXECFD",
3 => b"AT_PHDR",
4 => b"AT_PHENT",
5 => b"AT_PHNUM",
6 => b"AT_PAGESZ",
7 => b"AT_BASE",
8 => b"AT_FLAGS",
9 => b"AT_ENTRY",
11 => b"AT_UID",
12 => b"AT_EUID",
13 => b"AT_GID",
14 => b"AT_EGID",
15 => b"AT_PLATFORM",
16 => b"AT_HWCAP",
17 => b"AT_CLKTCK",
23 => b"AT_SECURE",
24 => b"AT_BASE_PLATFORM",
25 => b"AT_RANDOM",
26 => b"AT_HWCAP2",
31 => b"AT_EXECFN",
32 => b"AT_SYSINFO",
33 => b"AT_SYSINFO_EHDR",
_ => b"??",
}
}
fn formatted_val(&self) -> PrintArg<'_> {
match self.typ {
3 | 7 | 9 | 16 | 25 | 26 | 33 => PrintArg::Hex(self.val as usize),
31 | 15 => {
let s = unsafe {
let ptr = self.val as *const u8;
core::slice::from_raw_parts(ptr, strlen(ptr))
};
PrintArg::String(s)
}
_ => PrintArg::Number(self.val as usize),
}
}
}
With that out of the way, we can print arguments, a few environment variables, and auxiliary vectors fairly easily:
// in `samples/echidna/src/main.rs`
#[no_mangle]
pub unsafe fn main(stack_top: *const u8) {
let argc = *(stack_top as *const u64);
let argv = stack_top.add(8) as *const *const u8;
use core::slice::from_raw_parts as mkslice;
let args = mkslice(argv, argc as usize);
println!(b"received ", argc as usize, b" arguments:");
for &arg in args {
let arg = mkslice(arg, strlen(arg));
println!(b" - ", arg);
}
const ALLOWED_ENV_VARS: &'static [&[u8]] = &[b"USER=", b"SHELL=", b"LANG="];
fn is_envvar_allowed(var: &[u8]) -> bool {
for prefix in ALLOWED_ENV_VARS {
if var.starts_with(prefix) {
return true;
}
}
false
}
println!(b"environment variables:");
let mut envp = argv.add(argc as usize + 1) as *const *const u8;
let mut filtered = 0;
while !(*envp).is_null() {
let var = *envp;
let var = mkslice(var, strlen(var));
if is_envvar_allowed(var) {
println!(b" - ", var);
} else {
filtered += 1;
}
envp = envp.add(1);
}
println!(b"(+ ", filtered, b" redacted environment variables)");
println!(b"auxiliary vectors:");
let mut auxv = envp.add(1) as *const Auxv;
let null_auxv = Auxv { typ: 0, val: 0 };
while (*auxv) != null_auxv {
println!(b" - ", (*auxv).name(), b": ", (*auxv).formatted_val());
auxv = auxv.add(1);
}
exit(0);
}
Let's take it for a spin:
$ cargo b && ./target/debug/echidna foo bar baz
received 4 arguments:
- ./target/debug/echidna
- foo
- bar
- baz
environment variables:
- LANG=en_US.UTF-8
- SHELL=/bin/zsh
- USER=amos
(+ 50 redacted environment variables)
auxiliary vectors:
- AT_SYSINFO_EHDR: 0x7ffcfe3f1000
- AT_HWCAP: 0x178bfbff
- AT_PAGESZ: 4096
- AT_CLKTCK: 100
- AT_PHDR: 0x55d1da36c040
- AT_PHENT: 56
- AT_PHNUM: 11
- AT_BASE: 0x7f18ec8c5000
- AT_FLAGS: 0
- AT_ENTRY: 0x55d1da36ddc0
- AT_UID: 1000
- AT_EUID: 1000
- AT_GID: 1001
- AT_EGID: 1001
- AT_SECURE: 0
- AT_RANDOM: 0x7ffcfe3eca49
- AT_HWCAP2: 0x0
- AT_EXECFN: ./target/debug/echidna
- AT_PLATFORM: x86_64
Wonderful.
So uh.. I guess this is the end of this post and.. oh RIGHT, right, we're writing an ELF loader. I mean, an ELF packer! Either or, really.
Can we run echidna through elk?
$ ../../target/debug/elk run ./target/debug/echidna
Loading "/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna/target/debug/echidna"
Parsing failed:
String("Unknown SectionType 1879048193 (0x70000001)") at position 0:
00000000: 01 00 00 70 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 38 32 00 00 00 00 00 00
Fatal error: ELF object could not be parsed: /home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna/target/debug/echidna
Huh, that's a new one. No, really. I'm as surprised as you are.
This one took a bit of digging, but apparently it's SHT_X86_64_UNWIND,
which corresponds to the .eh_frame section:
$ readelf -WS target/debug/echidna | grep _UNWIND
[10] .eh_frame X86_64_UNWIND 0000000000005a98 005a98 000c48 00 A 0 0 8
Okay, no big deal, we're not planning on reading unwind information any time
soon, let's just add it to the SectionType enum and forget about it:
// in `delf/src/lib.rs`
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, TryFromPrimitive)]
#[repr(u32)]
pub enum SectionType {
// omitted: other variants
X8664Unwind = 0x70000001,
}
Let's try this again:
$ cd elk/
$ cargo b -q
$ ./target/debug/elk run ./samples/echidna/target/debug/echidna
Loading "/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna/target/debug/echidna"
received 94348905459012 arguments:
[1] 87167 segmentation fault (core dumped) ../../target/debug/elk run ./target/debug/echidna
Okay! Okay, we're getting somewhere.
So this is very expected: we're not setting up the stack in any way, so
echidna is reading garbage instead of argc and argv.
So let's set up the stack just right.
First off - if we want to pass command-line arguments, we need to let argh
(the crate we use to parse elk's command-line arguments) know that we
accept some extra ones for the run subcommand:
// in `elk/src/main.rs`
#[derive(FromArgs, PartialEq, Debug)]
#[argh(subcommand, name = "run")]
/// Load and run an ELF executable
struct RunArgs {
#[argh(positional)]
/// the absolute path of an executable file to load and run
exec_path: String,
#[argh(positional)]
/// arguments for the executable file
args: Vec<String>,
}
Next, we'll do a little spring cleanup - right now, main.rs takes care of
the whole startup process. How about we move that to process.rs?
// in `elk/src/process.rs`
use std::ffi::CString;
// This struct has a lifetime, because it takes a reference to an `Object` - so
// it's only "valid" for as long as the `Object` itself lives.
pub struct StartOptions<'a> {
pub exec: &'a Object,
pub args: Vec<CString>,
pub env: Vec<CString>,
pub auxv: Vec<Auxv>,
}
We'll be passing these options whenever we want to start a process with elk.
CString is an owned string type (it keeps track of / frees the underlying
the storage) that makes sure our strings don't contain NULL bytes and are
NULL-terminated - just like C (and Unix, here) wants them.
Cool bear's hot tip
For more (a lot more) about strings, check out Working with strings in Rust.
As for auxiliary vectors, well, let's make our own type. This is going to get a bit lengthy - check the code comments for explanations:
// in `elk/src/process.rs`
// This is really just an `u64` - having it as an `enum` in Rust lets us define
// variants, get a nice, auto-derived `Debug` implementation, and have
// associated functions.
#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy)]
#[repr(u64)]
pub enum AuxType {
/// End of vector
Null = 0,
/// Entry should be ignored
Ignore = 1,
/// File descriptor of program
ExecFd = 2,
/// Program headers for program
PHdr = 3,
/// Size of program header entry
PhEnt = 4,
/// Number of program headers
PhNum = 5,
/// System page size
PageSz = 6,
/// Base address of interpreter
Base = 7,
/// Flags
Flags = 8,
/// Entry point of program
Entry = 9,
/// Program is not ELF
NotElf = 10,
/// Real uid
Uid = 11,
/// Effective uid
EUid = 12,
/// Real gid
Gid = 13,
/// Effective gid
EGid = 14,
/// String identifying CPU for optimizations
Platform = 15,
/// Arch-dependent hints at CPU capabilities
HwCap = 16,
/// Frequency at which times() increments
ClkTck = 17,
/// Secure mode boolean
Secure = 23,
/// String identifying real platform, may differ from Platform
BasePlatform = 24,
/// Address of 16 random bytes
Random = 25,
// Extension of HwCap
HwCap2 = 26,
/// Filename of program
ExecFn = 31,
SysInfo = 32,
SysInfoEHdr = 33,
}
// Here's our "auxiliary vector" struct -
// just two `u64` in a trench coat.
pub struct Auxv {
typ: AuxType,
value: u64,
}
impl Auxv {
// A list of all the auxiliary types we know (and care) about
const KNOWN_TYPES: &'static [AuxType] = &[
AuxType::ExecFd,
AuxType::PHdr,
AuxType::PhEnt,
AuxType::PhNum,
AuxType::PageSz,
AuxType::Base,
AuxType::Flags,
AuxType::Entry,
AuxType::NotElf,
AuxType::Uid,
AuxType::EUid,
AuxType::Gid,
AuxType::EGid,
AuxType::Platform,
AuxType::HwCap,
AuxType::ClkTck,
AuxType::Secure,
AuxType::BasePlatform,
AuxType::Random,
AuxType::HwCap2,
AuxType::ExecFn,
AuxType::SysInfo,
AuxType::SysInfoEHdr,
];
// this is a quick libc binding thrown together (so we don't
// have to pull in the `libc` crate).
pub fn get(typ: AuxType) -> Option<Self> {
extern "C" {
// from libc
fn getauxval(typ: u64) -> u64;
}
unsafe {
match getauxval(typ as u64) {
0 => None,
value => Some(Self { typ, value }),
}
}
}
// returns a list of all aux vectors passed to us
// *that we know about*.
pub fn get_known() -> Vec<Self> {
Self::KNOWN_TYPES
.iter()
.copied()
.filter_map(Self::get)
.collect()
}
}
Remember that elk is just a regular ELF program. It gets started much the
same way echidna is - at some point there, the Linux kernel puts auxiliary
vectors on the stack, then hands off control to libc.
libc stashes those somewhere, and getauxval (not a syscall) is the way to
get them back, way, way later, when there's a lot of other stuff on top of
the stack.
This way of getting the auxiliary vectors is actually much simpler and what a regular person is likely to do. And I mean regular not as a derogatory term, but as "someone who isn't actively trying — despite repeated warnings from their friends — to make a dynamic linker".
// in `elk/src/process.rs`
impl Process {
pub fn start(&self, opts: &StartOptions) {
let exec = opts.exec;
let entry_point = exec.file.entry_point + exec.base;
let stack = Self::build_stack(opts);
unsafe { jmp(entry_point.as_ptr(), stack.as_ptr(), stack.len()) };
}
}
Next up is build_stack itself.
We've seen the structure earlier, now we just have to follow it.
As a reminder:
// in `elk/src/process.rs`
impl Process {
fn build_stack(opts: &StartOptions) -> Vec<u64> {
let mut stack = Vec::new();
let null = 0_u64;
macro_rules! push {
($x:expr) => {
stack.push($x as u64)
};
}
// note: everything is pushed in reverse order
// argc
push!(opts.args.len());
// argv
for v in &opts.args {
// `CString.as_ptr()` gives us the address of a memory
// location containing a null-terminated string.
// Note that we borrow `StartOptions`, so as long as it's
// still live by the time we jump to the entry point, we
// don't have to worry about it being freed too early.
push!(v.as_ptr());
}
push!(null);
// envp
for v in &opts.env {
push!(v.as_ptr());
}
push!(null);
// auxv
for v in &opts.auxv {
push!(v.typ);
push!(v.value);
}
push!(AuxType::Null);
push!(null);
// align stack to 16-byte boundary
if stack.len() % 2 == 1 {
stack.push(0);
}
stack
}
}
Cool bear's hot tip
You may have notice we don't actually put the "argument strings" and "environment strings" on the stack.
They live on elk's stack. And we never bother to free it, so it remains available for the lifetime of whichever program we launch.
Then of course there's jmp.
Up until now, it was as simple as possible:
// in `elk/src/main.rs`
unsafe fn jmp(addr: *const u8) {
let fn_ptr: fn() = std::mem::transmute(addr);
fn_ptr();
}
But where we're going.. we'll need inline assembly. Let's enable the feature
for elk (we already enabled it for echidna):
// in `elk/src/main.rs`
#[feature(asm)]
Since this is our first unstable feature for elk, we also need to switch to
the nightly channel, so, we'll need to create a rust-toolchain file with
the following contents:
[toolchain]
channel = "nightly"
components = [ "rustfmt", "clippy" ]
targets = [ "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu" ]
Cool bear's hot tip
If you have both elk and delf in a Cargo workspace, you'll need to put
the rust-toolchain file at the very top of the workspace. Otherwise, you
can put it directly in elk.
Point is, cargo check should stop complaining that we're pulling in an
unstable feature.
And move it over to process.rs. It's a tiny bit involved, compared to
the stuff we've done so far, so there are inline comments:
// in `elk/src/process.rs`
#[inline(never)]
unsafe fn jmp(entry_point: *const u8, stack_contents: *const u64, qword_count: usize) {
asm!(
// allocate (qword_count * 8) bytes
"mov {tmp}, {qword_count}",
"sal {tmp}, 3",
"sub rsp, {tmp}",
".l1:",
// start at i = (n-1)
"sub {qword_count}, 1",
// copy qwords to the stack
"mov {tmp}, QWORD PTR [{stack_contents}+{qword_count}*8]",
"mov QWORD PTR [rsp+{qword_count}*8], {tmp}",
// loop if i isn't zero, break otherwise
"test {qword_count}, {qword_count}",
"jnz .l1",
"jmp {entry_point}",
entry_point = in(reg) entry_point,
stack_contents = in(reg) stack_contents,
qword_count = in(reg) qword_count,
tmp = out(reg) _,
)
}
Cool bear's hot tip
The inline(never) annotation will let us break on jmp.
Finally, let's use our new process-starting facilities from main.rs:
// in `elk/src/main.rs`
fn cmd_run(args: RunArgs) -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
// these are the usual steps
let mut proc = process::Process::new();
let exec_index = proc.load_object_and_dependencies(&args.exec_path)?;
proc.apply_relocations()?;
proc.adjust_protections()?;
// we'll need those to handle C-style strings (null-terminated)
use std::ffi::CString;
let exec = &proc.objects[exec_index];
// the first argument is typically the path to the executable itself.
// that's not something `argh` gives us, so let's add it ourselves
let args = std::iter::once(CString::new(args.exec_path.as_bytes()).unwrap())
.chain(
args.args
.iter()
.map(|s| CString::new(s.as_bytes()).unwrap()),
)
.collect();
let opts = process::StartOptions {
exec,
args,
// on the stack, environment variables are null-terminated `K=V` strings.
// the Rust API gives us key-value pairs, so we need to build those strings
// ourselves
env: std::env::vars()
.map(|(k, v)| CString::new(format!("{}={}", k, v).as_bytes()).unwrap())
.collect(),
// right now we pass all *our* auxiliary vectors to the underlying process.
// note that some of those aren't quite correct - there's a `Base` auxiliary
// vector, for example, which is set to `elk`'s base address, not `echidna`'s!
auxv: process::Auxv::get_known(),
};
proc.start(&opts);
Ok(())
}
And with that, we're all set:
$ cd elk/
$ cargo build --release --quiet
$ ./target/release/elk run samples/echidna/target/release/echidna foo bar baz
Loading "/home/amos/ftl/elf-series/samples/echidna/target/release/echidna"
received 4 arguments:
- samples/echidna/target/release/echidna
- foo
- bar
- baz
environment variables:
- SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh
- LANG=en_US.UTF-8
- USER=amos
(+ 52 redacted environment variables)
auxiliary vectors:
- AT_PHDR: 0x564fcd623040
- AT_PHENT: 56
- AT_PHNUM: 12
- AT_PAGESZ: 4096
- AT_BASE: 0x7f62f04d7000
- AT_ENTRY: 0x564fcd62c070
- AT_UID: 1000
- AT_EUID: 1000
- AT_GID: 1000
- AT_EGID: 1000
- AT_PLATFORM: x86_64
- AT_HWCAP: 0x2
- AT_CLKTCK: 100
- AT_RANDOM: 0x7fffc5473c79
- AT_EXECFN: ./target/release/elk
- AT_SYSINFO_EHDR: 0x7fffc55bf000
Wonderful!
I'm curious... does it run regular C programs yet?
$ ../../target/release/elk run /bin/ls
Loading "/usr/bin/ls"
Loading "/usr/lib/libcap.so.2.33"
Loading "/usr/lib/libc-2.31.so"
Fatal error: Could not read symbols from ELF object: Parsing error: String("Unknown SymType 6 (0x6)"):
input: 16 00 18 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Nope! Worth a try though.
We're getting awfully close though. Pinky promise.
Here's another article just for you:
Request coalescing in async Rust
51 min
As the popular saying goes, there are only two hard problems in computer science: caching, off-by-one errors, and getting a Rust job that isn't cryptocurrency-related.
Today, we'll discuss caching! Or rather, we'll discuss... "request coalescing", or "request deduplication", or "single-flighting" - there's many names for that concept, which we'll get into fairly soon.