THe elf file is static linked
and currently the objdump's output is something like:
Disassembly of section: .init:
xxxxxx
Disassembly of section: .plt:
xxxxxx
Disassembly of section: .text:
xxxxxx
basically what I want to achieve is
"elf-file -(disassemble by objdump)-> assemble file --(re-compile)--> same functionality"
I don't need the re-compiled binary has the binary content same as the original one, only same functionality is enough.
After a quick search, basically the answer is no, and they argued that disassemble file lost some stuff like symbolic information or others, but I think by static link, I can get rid of this issue...
Thank you!
objdump -S -d elf-file
is not usually sufficient, as it lacks .data
section.
But it seems that objdump -S -D elf-file
is sufficient.
To try this, I wrote a small x86-64 assembly file that uses extern printf
, assembled it with YASM without debug symbols and linked with GCC.
[bits 64]
; yasm -f elf64 -m amd64 1st_generation.asm -o 1st_generation.o; gcc -o 1st_generation 1st_generation.o
section .text
global main
extern printf
main:
push rbp
mov rbp,rsp
lea rdi,[msg]
mov rsi,[num]
xor eax,eax
call printf
mov eax,60
xor ebx,ebx
syscall
section .data
msg db 'abcdef = %d', 0xa, 0
num dd 1337
testmsg1:
db "test 01", 0x0a, 0
Then I disassembled it with objdump -S -D -M intel elf-file >objdump_output.txt
. -M intel
produces the disassembly in Intel format. AT&T would work too, but I prefer Intel format for its clarity.
Then I wrote a small gawk
program objdump_to_asm
to convert the disassembly produced by objdump -S -D -M intel elf-file >objdump_output.txt
into a suitable format for YASM. Assumes x86-64 code and main
as entry point. Can be easily edited to different kinds of environment (x86 is trivial, others may need more work). Usage ./objdump_to_asm objdump_output.txt
. Interestingly 1st generation executable has size of 6598 bytes, whereas 2nd generation executable has size of only 6496 bytes. 3rd generation assembly code is identical with the 2nd generation assembly code.
Here's the code:
#!/usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN{
disassembly_of_section_string = "Disassembly of section ";
sections_to_discard[1] = ".interp";
sections_to_discard[2] = ".note.ABI-tag";
sections_to_discard[3] = ".note.gnu.build-id";
sections_to_discard[4] = ".dynsym";
sections_to_discard[5] = ".dynstr";
sections_to_discard[6] = ".hash";
sections_to_discard[7] = ".gnu.hash";
sections_to_discard[8] = ".gnu.version";
sections_to_discard[9] = ".gnu.version_r";
sections_to_discard[10] = ".rela.dyn";
sections_to_discard[11] = ".rela.init";
sections_to_discard[12] = ".eh_frame";
sections_to_discard[13] = ".dynamic";
sections_to_discard[14] = ".got";
sections_to_discard[15] = ".got.plt";
sections_to_discard[16] = ".jcr";
sections_to_discard[17] = ".init_array";
sections_to_discard[18] = ".comment";
sections_to_discard[19] = ".note.gnu.gold-version";
number_of_sections_to_discard = length(sections_to_discard);
sections_to_handle[1] = ".plt";
sections_to_handle[2] = ".text";
sections_to_handle[3] = ".data";
sections_to_handle[4] = ".bss";
number_of_sections_to_handle = length(sections_to_handle);
blocks_to_discard_in_text[1] = "<call_gmon_start>:";
blocks_to_discard_in_text[2] = "<deregister_tm_clones>:";
blocks_to_discard_in_text[3] = "<register_tm_clones>:";
blocks_to_discard_in_text[4] = "<__do_global_dtors_aux>:";
blocks_to_discard_in_text[5] = "<frame_dummy>:"
blocks_to_discard_in_text[6] = "<__libc_csu_fini>:"
blocks_to_discard_in_text[7] = "<__libc_csu_init>:"
blocks_to_discard_in_text[8] = "<_start>:"; # !!!
number_of_blocks_to_discard_in_text = length(blocks_to_discard_in_text);
blocks_to_handle_in_text[1] = "main"
number_of_blocks_to_handle_in_text = length(blocks_to_handle_in_text);
blocks_to_handle_in_data[1] = "__dso_handle"
number_of_blocks_to_handle_in_data = length(blocks_to_handle_in_data);
externs_to_handle[1] = "printf";
number_of_externs_to_handle = length(externs_to_handle);
hexdump_start_byte = 11;
disassembly_start_byte = 33;
current_section = "";
getline;
getline;
file_format_index = match($0, "file format elf64-x86-64")
if (file_format_index > 0)
{
print "[bits 64]";
}
}
{
match_index = 0; # 0 : no match, > 0 : match.
i = 1; # index to sections_to_handle .
while (i <= number_of_sections_to_handle)
{
match_index = match($0, (disassembly_of_section_string sections_to_handle[i]));
if (match_index > 0) # we have a section to handle.
{
current_section = sections_to_handle[i];
getline;
break;
}
i++;
}
match_index = 0; # 0 : no match, > 0 : match.
i = 1; # index to sections_to_discard .
while (i <= number_of_sections_to_discard)
{
match_index = match($0, (disassembly_of_section_string sections_to_discard[i]));
if (match_index > 0) # we have a section to discard.
{
current_section = sections_to_discard[i];
getline;
break;
}
i++;
}
if (match (current_section, ".plt"))
{
match_index = 0; # 0 : no match, > 0 : match.
i = 1; # index to externs_to_handle.
while (i <= number_of_externs_to_handle)
{
match_index = match($0, ("<" externs_to_handle[i] "@plt>:"));
if (match_index > 0) # we have an extern to handle.
{
print "extern " externs_to_handle[i];
getline;
break;
}
i++;
}
}
if (match (current_section, ".text"))
{
match_index = 0; # 0 : no match, > 0 : match.
i = 1; # index to the blocks of section .text .
while (i <= number_of_blocks_to_handle_in_text)
{
match_index = match($0, ("<" blocks_to_handle_in_text[i] ">:"));
if (match_index > 0) # we have a block to handle.
{
print "section .text";
print "global main";
print blocks_to_handle_in_text[i] ":";
getline;
while ((length ($0)) > 0)
{
disassembly_without_hex_bytes = substr($0, disassembly_start_byte);
disassembly_without_hex_bytes = gensub(/PTR /, "", "g", disassembly_without_hex_bytes);
disassembly_without_hex_bytes = gensub(/(ds:)([a-z0-9]*)/, "[\\2]", "g", disassembly_without_hex_bytes);
match_index = 0; # 0 : no match, > 0 : match.
j = 1; # index to externs to handle.
while (j <= number_of_externs_to_handle)
{
match_index = match(disassembly_without_hex_bytes, ("<" externs_to_handle[i] "@plt>"));
if (match_index > 0) # we have an extern to handle.
{
current_extern_to_handle = externs_to_handle[j];
"echo '" disassembly_without_hex_bytes "' | sed 's/\\([0-9]*\\)\\( <\\)\\(" current_extern_to_handle "\\)\\(@plt>\\)/\\3/g'" |& getline disassembly_without_hex_bytes;
close("echo '" disassembly_without_hex_bytes "' | sed 's/\\([0-9]*\\)\\( <\\)\\(" current_extern_to_handle "\\)\\(@plt>\\)/\\3/g'");
break;
}
j++;
}
if (match(disassembly_without_hex_bytes, "data32") != 1)
{
print disassembly_without_hex_bytes;
}
getline;
}
break;
}
i++;
}
}
if (match (current_section, ".data"))
{
match_index = 0; # 0 : no match, > 0 : match.
i = 1; # index to the blocks of section .data .
while (i <= number_of_blocks_to_handle_in_data)
{
match_index = match($0, ("<" blocks_to_handle_in_data[i] ">:"));
if (match_index > 0) # we have a block to handle.
{
print "section .data";
getline;
while ((length ($0)) > 0)
{
getline;
hexdump_only = substr($0, hexdump_start_byte, (disassembly_start_byte - hexdump_start_byte));
hexdump_only = gensub(/([[:alnum:]]+)/, "0x\\1", "g", hexdump_only);
hexdump_only = gensub(/(0x[[:alnum:]]+)( )(0x[[:alnum:]]+)/, "\\1, \\3", "g", hexdump_only);
hexdump_only = gensub(/(0x[[:alnum:]]+)( )(0x[[:alnum:]]+)/, "\\1, \\3", "g", hexdump_only);
if (match (hexdump_only, "0x") > 0)
{
print "db " hexdump_only;
}
}
break;
}
i++;
}
}
}
Executing ./objdump_to_asm objdump_output.txt >2nd_generation.asm
produces the following assembly file. Assembles with YASM, links with GCC. The assembled and linked executable is not identical with the original, actually it's 6496 bytes, whereas the original executable has size of 6568 bytes.
[bits 64]
extern printf
section .text
global main
main:
push rbp
mov rbp,rsp
lea rdi,[0x401958]
mov rsi,QWORD [0x401965]
xor eax,eax
call printf
mov eax,0x3c
xor ebx,ebx
syscall
section .data
db 0x61
db 0x62
db 0x63, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66
db 0x20, 0x3d, 0x20, 0x25, 0x64, 0x0a
db 0x00, 0x39
db 0x05, 0x00, 0x00, 0x74, 0x65
db 0x73, 0x74
db 0x20, 0x30
db 0x31, 0x0a
db 0x00, 0x00
At least some "middle stage" is probably needed to make the reloc-info into assembler accepted form. What I have seen (Linux), the code is partially (internally) linked, and the label info is then replaced by reloc info.
You see them as jumps to the jump instructions themselves and reloc info about what to do to the jump target address at load time.