What are the possible ways of intercepting system calls on unix environments? - unix

What are the possible ways of intercepting system calls on unix environments?
I'm looking to do in AIX.
Thanks

Not familiar with AIX, but the following works on Linux and Solaris. You can use the LD_PRELOAD environment variable, which tells ld.so to load a shared library before libc and then write your own version of the system call, and optionally call the original. man ld.so for more information. Something along the lines of
#include <dlfcn.h>
typedef int (*ioctl_fn)(int, int, void*);
static
int
my_ioctl(int fildes,
int request,
void* argp,
ioctl_fn fn_ptr)
{
int result = 0;
/* call original or do my stuff */
if (request == INTERESTED)
{
result = 0;
}
else
{
result = (*fn_ptr)(fildes, request, argp);
}
return result;
}
/*
* override ioctl() - on first call get a pointer to the "real" one
* and then pass it onto our version of the function
*/
int
ioctl(int fildes,
int request,
void* argp)
{
static ioctl_fn S_fn_ptr = 0;
if (S_fn_ptr == 0)
{
S_fn_ptr = (ioctl_fn)dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "ioctl");
}
return my_ioctl(fildes, request, argp, S_fn_ptr);
}
Carved this out of some code I had lying around, apologies if I have made it incorrect.

Well, there's always systrace.

I'm not sure about AIX, but I've done it on Linux.
On Linux, the system call table is contained in the sys_call_table array.
We need to first find out the address of this table. Now, this is a tricky thing and there are multiple ways to do it.
We can find its address by looking at sysmap file:
punb200m2labs08vm1:/ # cat /boot/System.map-4.4.21-69-default | grep sys_call_table
ffffffff81600180 R sys_call_table
Hence, ffffffff81600180 is the address of sys_call_table on my machine.
In your kernel module, you can just change the default function corresponding to certain system call number (that you're changing) and assign it to your own function.
e.g. Suppose you want to intercept 'open' system call whose number is __NR_open on Linux. After you get the sys_call_table address from above, just assign your function to index __NR_open of sys_call_table:
sys_call_table[__NR_open] = your_function;
where your_function is implemented by you to intercept 'open' system call.
From now on, every open system call will go through this function.
The details would differ on AIX, but the overall idea would be similar, I guess. You just need to find out AIX specific procedure to achieve this.

Related

Returning object reference from C++ function

I have began learning C++ for Arduino and have run into some troubles.
I have some functions reading/writing to SPIFFS files.
Since the code for opening configuration files is common I would want to have a separate function to handle it.
I have come up with following function declaration
ConfigFileOpenStatus DeviceOpenConfigFile(const char *path, File *file);
The function accepts pointer to char array for the file path, and pointer to opened file.
I then tried to make following function definition
ConfigFileOpenStatus DeviceOpenConfigFile(const char *path, File *file)
{
if (SPIFFS.exists(path))
{
file = &SPIFFS.open(path, "r+");
return !file ? Failed : Opened;
}
else
{
file = &SPIFFS.open(path, "w+");
return !file ? Failed : Created;
}
}
That did not work as compiler complained with error error: taking address of temporary [-fpermissive]
As I understand this means that the file object will be disposed once DeviceOpenConfigFile function returns?
So my question is whether its possible to implement a function in a way where I can get File object reference and release it later?
SPIFFS.open apparently returns File, by value. The returned value will be a temporary variable available on that line. So taking the address of that one doesn't make any sense, for the same reason as int func (void); ... &func() doesn't make any sense. It has nothing to do with the surrounding DeviceOpenConfigFile function.
It doesn't make sense to assign a new address to pointer passed by parameter, for the same reason as void func (int x) { x = 0; } doesn't make sense - you change a local variable only, nothing on the caller side gets changed and nothing gets returned to the caller.
It would seem that the solution you are looking for is this:
ConfigFileOpenStatus DeviceOpenConfigFile(const char *path, File* file)
{
...
*file = SPIFFS.open(path, "r+");
where file is allocated on the caller-side.

How does one call a function from it's memory address in AVR C?

I am writing a function:
void callFunctionAt(uint32_t address){
//There is a void at address, how do I run it?
}
This is in Atmel Studio's C++. If previous questions are to be believed, the simple answer is to write the line "address();". This cannot be correct. Without changing the header of this function, how would one call the function located at the address given?
The answer should be system-agnostic for all micro controllers which support standard c++ compilation.
The common way to do this is to give the argument the correct type. Then you can call it right away:
void callFunctionAt(void (*address)()) {
address();
}
However, since you wrote "Without changing the header of this function [...]", you need to cast the unsigned integer to a function pointer:
void callFunctionAt(uint32_t address) {
void (*f)() = reinterpret_cast<void (*f)()>(address);
f();
}
But this is not safe and not portabel because it assumes that the uint32_t can be casted into a function pointer. And this needs not to be true: "[...] system-agnostic for all micro controllers [...]". Function pointers can have other widths than 32 bits. Pointers in general might consist of more than the pure address, for example include a selector for memory spaces, depending on the system's architecture.
If you got the address from a linker script, you might have declared it like this:
extern const uint32_t ext_func;
And like to use it so:
callFunctionAt(ext_func);
But you can change the declaration into:
extern void ext_func();
And call it directly or indirectly:
ext_func();
callFunctionAt(&ext_func);
The definition in the linker can stay as it is, because the linker knows nothing about types.
There is no generic way. It depends on which compiler you are using. In the following I'll assume avr-g++ because it's common and freely available.
Spoiler: On AVR, it's more complicated than on most other machines.
Suppose you actually have a uint32_t address which would be a byte address. Function pointers in avr-g++ are word addresses actually, where a word has 16 bits. Hence, you'll have to divide the byte address by 2 first to get a word address; then cast it to a function pointer and call it:
#include <stdint.h>
typedef void (*func_t)(void);
void callFunctionAt (uint32_t byte_address)
{
func_t func = (func_t) (byte_address >> 1);
func();
}
If you started with a word address, then you can call it without further ado:
void callFunctionAt (uint32_t address)
{
((func_t) word_address)();
}
This will only work for devices with up to 128KiB of flash memory!
The reason is that addresses in avr-g++ are 16 bits long, cf. the layout of void* as per avr-gcc ABI. This means using scalar addresses on devices with flash > 128KiB will not work in general, for example when you issue callFunctionAt (0x30000) on an ATmega2560.
On such devices, the 16-bit address in Z register used by EICALL instruction is extended by the value held in the EIND special function register, and you must not change EIND after entering main. The avr-g++ documentation is clear about that.
The crucial point here is how you are getting the address. First, in order to call and pass it around properly, use a function pointer:
typedef void (*func_t)(void);
void callFunctionAt (func_t address)
{
address();
}
void func (void);
void call_func()
{
func_t addr = func;
callFunctionAt (addr);
}
I am using void argument in the declaration because this is how you'd do it in C.
Or, if you don't like the typedef:
void callFunctionAt (void (*address)(void))
{
address();
}
void func (void);
void call_func ()
{
void (*addr)(void) = func;
callFunctionAt (addr);
}
If you want to call a function at a specific word address like, for example 0x0 to "reset"1 the µC, you could
void call_0x0()
{
callFunctionAt ((func_t) 0x0);
}
but whether this works depends on where your vector table is located, or more specifically, how EIND was initialized by the startup code. What will always work is using a symbol and define it with -Wl,--defsym,func=0 when linking with the following code:
extern "C" void func();
void call_func ()
{
void (*addr)(void) = func;
callFunctionAt (addr);
}
The big difference compared to using 0x0 directly it that the compiler will wrap symbol func with symbol modifier gs which it will not do when using 0x0 directly:
_Z9call_funcv:
ldi r24,lo8(gs(func))
ldi r25,hi8(gs(func))
jmp _Z14callFunctionAtPFvvE
This is needed if the address is out of the scope of EIJMP to advise the linker to generate a stub.
1 This will not reset the hardware. The best approach to force a reset is by letting the watchdog timer (WDT) issue a reset for you.
Methods
Yet another situation is when you want the address of a non-static method of a class because you also need a this pointer in that case:
class A
{
int a = 1;
public:
int method1 () { return a += 1; }
int method2 () { return a += 2; }
};
void callFunctionAt (A *b, int (A::*f)())
{
A a;
(a.*f)();
(b->*f)();
}
void call_method ()
{
A a;
callFunctionAt (&a, &A::method1);
callFunctionAt (&a, &A::method2);
}
The 2nd argument of callFunctionAt specifies which method (of a given prototype) you want, but you also need an object (or pointer to one) to apply it. avr-g++ will use gs when taking the method's address (provided the following call(s) cannot be inlined), thus it will also work for all AVR devices.
Based on comments I think you are asking about how microcontroller calls function.
Could you compile your program to see assembly files?
I would recommend you to read one of them.
Every function after compiling are translated to instructions that CPU can do (loading to register, adding to register etc.).
So then your void foo(int x) {statements;} compile to simple CPU instructions and whenever you call foo(x) in your program, you are moving to instructions that are related to foo - you are calling a subroutine.
As far as I remeber there is a CALL function in AVR to invoke subroutines and the name of subroutine is the label where executing program jump and invoking next instruction at adress.
I think you can clarify your doubts when you read some AVR assembly tutorials.
It is fun (at least for me) to see what exactly CPU do when it calls function that I wrote, but it required to know what instructions do. You develop in AVR so there is a set of instructions that you can read about in this PDF and compare with your assembly files.

Finding pointer with 'find out what writes to this address' strange offset

I'm trying to find a base pointer for UrbanTerror42.
My setup is as followed, I have a server with 2 players.
cheat-engine runs on client a.
I climb a ladder with client b and then scan for incease/decrease.
When I have found the values, I use find out what writes to this address.
But the offset are very high and point to empty memory.
I don't really know how to proceed
For the sake of clarity, I have looked up several other values and they have the same problem
I've already looked at a number of tutorials and forums, but that's always about values where the offsets are between 0 and 100 and not 80614.
I would really appreciate it if someone could tell me why this happened and what I have to do/learn to proceed.
thanks in advance
Urban Terror uses the Quake Engine. Early versions of this engine use the Quake Virtual Machine and the game logic is implemented as bytecode which is compiled into assembly by the Quake Virtual Machine. Custom allocation routines are used to load these modules into memory, relative and hardcoded offsets/addresses are created at runtime to accommodate these relocations and do not use the normal relocation table method of the portable executable file format. This is why you see these seemingly strange numbers that change every time you run the game.
The Quake Virtual Machines are file format .qvm and these qvms in memory are tracked in the QVM table. You must find the QVM table to uncover this mystery. Once you find the 2-3 QVMs and record their addresses, finding the table is easy, as you're simply doing a scan for pointers that point to these addresses and narrowing down your results by finding those which are close in memory to each other.
The QVM is defined like:
struct vmTable_t
{
vm_t vm[3];
};
struct vm_s {
// DO NOT MOVE OR CHANGE THESE WITHOUT CHANGING THE VM_OFFSET_* DEFINES
// USED BY THE ASM CODE
int programStack; // the vm may be recursively entered
intptr_t(*systemCall)(intptr_t *parms);
//------------------------------------
char name[MAX_QPATH];
// for dynamic linked modules
void *dllHandle;
intptr_t entryPoint; //(QDECL *entryPoint)(int callNum, ...);
void(*destroy)(vm_s* self);
// for interpreted modules
qboolean currentlyInterpreting;
qboolean compiled;
byte *codeBase;
int codeLength;
int *instructionPointers;
int instructionCount;
byte *dataBase;
int dataMask;
int stackBottom; // if programStack < stackBottom, error
int numSymbols;
struct vmSymbol_s *symbols;
int callLevel; // counts recursive VM_Call
int breakFunction; // increment breakCount on function entry to this
int breakCount;
BYTE *jumpTableTargets;
int numJumpTableTargets;
};
typedef struct vm_s vm_t;
The value in EAX in your original screenshot should be the same as either the codeBase or dataBase member variable of the QVM structure. The offsets are just relative to these addresses. Similarly to how you deal with ASLR, you must calculate the addresses at runtime.
Here is a truncated version of my code that does exactly this and additionally grabs important structures from memory, as an example:
void OA_t::GetVM()
{
cg = nullptr;
cgs = nullptr;
cgents = nullptr;
bLocalGame = false;
cgame = nullptr;
for (auto &vm : vmTable->vm)
{
if (strstr(vm.name, "qagame")) { bLocalGame = true; continue; }
if (strstr(vm.name, "cgame"))
{
cgame = &vm;
gamestatus = GSTAT_GAME;
//char* gamestring = Cvar_VariableString("fs_game");
switch (cgame->instructionCount)
{
case 136054: //version 88
cgents = (cg_entities*)(cgame->dataBase + 0x1649c);
cg = (cg_t*)(cgame->dataBase + 0xCC49C);
cgs = (cgs_t*)(cgame->dataBase + 0xf2720);
return;
Full source code for reference available at OpenArena Aimbot Source Code, it even includes a video overview of the code.
Full disclosure: that is a link to my website and the only viable resource I know of that covers this topic.

Problems with a structure copy

I am having a compiler issue in Visual Studio 2005 using the standard C compiler when trying to do a structure copy from one location to another.
The types are defined in a file as follows:
definition.h
#define MAX 7
typedef struct{
char recordtext[18];
boolean recordvalid;
}recordtype;
typdef recordtype tabletype[MAX];
typedef struct{
tabletype table;
}global_s;
Let us pretend that a global_s "object" is instantiated and initialized somewhere and a pointer to this structure is created.
#include "definition.h"
global_s global;
global_s* pglobal = &global;
init(&pglobal);
Meanwhile, in another file (and this is where my problem is) i am trying to create a local tabletype object, and fill it with the global table member, using a get method to protect the global (lets pretend it is "static")
#include "definition.h"
extern global_s* pglobal;
tabletype t;
gettable(&t);
void gettabl (tabletype* pt)
{
*pt = pglobal->table;
}
When I go to compile, the line in the gettable function throws a compiler error "error C2106: '=': left operand must be l-value. It looks as though this should behave as a normal copy operation, and in fact if I perform a similar operation on a more basic structure I do not get the error. For example If I copy a structure only containing two integers.
Does anyone have a solid explanation as to why this operation seems to be incorrect?
(Disclaimer: I have developed this code as a scrubbed version of my actual code for example purposes so it may not be 100% correct syntactically, I will edit the question if anyone points out an issue or something needs to be clarified.)
It's the arrays in the struct; they cannot be assigned. You should define an operator=() for each of the structs, and use memcpy on the arrays, or copy them in a loop element by element.
(IF you want to get a reference to your global variable):
I am not sure, if this is correct (and the problem), but I think besides function prototypes, arrays and pointers (to arrays 1. element) are NOT exactly the same thing. And there is a difference between pointer to array and pointer to the 1. element of an array)
Maybe taking the adress of the array:
*pt = &(pglobal->table);
Anyway it might be better not to fetch the address of the whole array but the address of the first element, so that the resulting pointer can be used directly as record array (without dereferencing it)
recordtype* gettable (size_t* puLength)
{
*puLength = MAX;
return &(pglobal->table[0]);
}
(IF you want a copy of the table):
Arrays can't be copied inplace in C90, and of course you have to provide target memory. You would then define a function get table like this:
void gettable (recordtype * const targetArr)
{
size_t i = 0;
for (; i < MAX; i++) targetArr[i] = pglobal->table[i];
return;
}
an fully equivalent function prototype for gettable is:
void gettable(recordtype[] targetArr);
Arrays are provided by refernce as pointer to the first element, when it comes to function parameters. You could again ask for an pointer to the whole array, and dereference it inside gettable. But you always have to copy elementwise.
You can use memcopy to do the job as 1-liner. Modern compilers should generate equally efficent code AFAIK.

Why does my program halt when calling front() on a std::queue?

I want to use the Irrnet network library in an Irrlicht game.
The source code uses Linux sockets and I'm trying to port it for Windows replacing it with code that uses Windows' Winsock2.
The library compiles successfully but when I try to run the Quake example it crashes. I located the line at which the program stops but i can't figure out how to solve the problem.
The program stops at the second call of the function getNextItem
class NetworkType {
public :
NetworkType();
~NetworkType();
template<class T>
void getNextItem(irr::core::vector3d<T>& data);
private:
typedef std::queue<std::string> Container;
Container items;
};
template<class T>
void NetworkType::getNextItem(irr::core::vector3d<T>& data) {
T X, Y, Z;
std::istringstream item(items.front());
// the program does not get here the second time it calls this function
items.pop();
item >> X;
item >> Y;
item >> Z;
data = irr::core::vector3d<T>(X, Y, Z);
}
and exactly at this line
std::istringstream item(items.front());
Can anyone tell me why does the program stop the second time it gets to this line ?
here is the link for the complete source code
I assume by "stops" you mean "crashes" in some fashion? Likely causes for a crash on the line in question are:
The NetworkType instance that is invoking the getNextItem() method is garbage (the this pointer is garbage or null). This could happen due to bad pointer math elsewhere, a premature delete or destruction of the instance, et cetera. This would manifest as a fault when the program attempted to access the items member.
The items container is empty. In these cases the return value of front() is undefined (since it is a reference) and the constructor for istringstream may be crashing. front() itself may be raising a debug/runtime check error as well depending on your compiler and its configuration.
Actually you might have a runtime error on this one if the dequeue is empty: MSDN deque
So just check the deque isn't empty before you try to pop a value from it.
if(items.size()>0)
{
//do things
}
else
{
//error deque empty
}
[edit] confounded std and (I guess) MSDN ( OP doesn't say) lib.

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