Disassembling running kernel

jestinjoy · 01-03-2012, 06:03 AM

I tried running gdb to disassemble the kernel and tried running:

Code:

root@debian:/home/jestinjoy# gdb /usr/src/linux-2.6.38.8/vmlinux
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.0.1-debian
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>...
Reading symbols from /usr/src/linux-2.6.38.8/vmlinux...done.
(gdb) disass sys_read
Dump of assembler code for function sys_read:
0xc10cacb9 <sys_read+0>:    push   %ebp
0xc10cacba <sys_read+1>:    mov    %esp,%ebp
0xc10cacbc <sys_read+3>:    push   %esi
0xc10cacbd <sys_read+4>:    mov    $0xfffffff7,%esi
0xc10cacc2 <sys_read+9>:    push   %ebx
0xc10cacc3 <sys_read+10>:   sub    $0xc,%esp
0xc10cacc6 <sys_read+13>:   mov    0x8(%ebp),%eax
0xc10cacc9 <sys_read+16>:   lea    -0xc(%ebp),%edx
0xc10caccc <sys_read+19>:   call   0xc10cb346 <fget_light>
0xc10cacd1 <sys_read+24>:   test   %eax,%eax
0xc10cacd3 <sys_read+26>:   mov    %eax,%ebx
0xc10cacd5 <sys_read+28>:   je     0xc10cad10 <sys_read+87>
0xc10cacd7 <sys_read+30>:   mov    0x2c(%ebx),%edx

It Looks ok. But when I run

Code:

root@debian:/home/jestinjoy# gdb /usr/src/linux-2.6.38.8/vmlinux /proc/kcore 
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.0.1-debian
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>...
Reading symbols from /usr/src/linux-2.6.38.8/vmlinux...done.
Core was generated by `BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38.8 root=UUID=b61e8ee2-949a-4810-ac56-42564ee005d7'.
#0  0x00000000 in ?? ()
(gdb) disass sys_read
Dump of assembler code for function sys_read:
0xc10cacb9 <sys_read+0>:    add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacbb <sys_read+2>:    add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacbd <sys_read+4>:    add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacbf <sys_read+6>:    add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacc1 <sys_read+8>:    add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacc3 <sys_read+10>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacc5 <sys_read+12>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacc7 <sys_read+14>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacc9 <sys_read+16>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10caccb <sys_read+18>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10caccd <sys_read+20>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10caccf <sys_read+22>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacd1 <sys_read+24>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacd3 <sys_read+26>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacd5 <sys_read+28>:   add    %al,(%eax)
0xc10cacd7 <sys_read+30>:   add    %al,(%eax)

It gives weird result. I am running with

CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=y and with kernel 2.6.38

sundialsvcs · 01-04-2012, 06:23 AM

You are trying to disassemble a page that is all-zero i.e. not accessible to you.

For what ought to be very obvious reasons, the kernel doesn't expose too much of itself to user-land.

resetreset · 01-23-2012, 08:20 AM

You actually know the hex for "add %al,(%eax)"???!!!!

You're more of a whiz than *I* am, sundial