I have some assembly that needs to load a C symbol in OS X (x86-64). With x86, the way you do this is:
mov rax, some_symbol_name
However, with x86-64, this causes a link warning:
ld: warning: PIE disabled. Absolute addressing (perhaps -mdynamic-no-pic) not allowed in code signed PIE, but used in _main from Test2.o.
To fix this warning, don't compile with -mdynamic-no-pic or link with -Wl,-no_pie
Note: I know what PIE is, and I don't want to disable it. Here are some of my other attempts to load the symbol address into a register:
movq rax, some_symbol_name ; Link warning
lea rax, [rel some_symbol_name] ; No link warning, but doesn't always get correct address
I'm really stumped on this (seemingly) simple problem. I've looked at the GAS disassembly, and it seems to be doing something along the lines of the lea above, but I can't get NASM to generate the right code.
EDIT: For reference, this is the assembly code generated by GAS:
leaq some_symbol_name(%rip), %rax
You want to force NASM to use RIP relative addressing. Do one of:
lea rax, [rel some_symbol_name]
or:
default rel
lea rax, [some_symbol_name]
If this doesn't work, post the machine code generated by both NASM and GAS.
Related
I have written a small piece of assembly with AT&T syntax and have currently declared three variables in the .data section. However, when I attempt to move any of those variables to a register, such as %eax, an error from gcc is raised. The code and error message is below:
.data
x:.int 14
y:.int 4
str: .string "some string\n"
.globl _main
_main:
pushq %rbp
movq %rsp, %rbp
subq $16, %rsp
movl x, %eax; #attempting to move the value of x to %eax;
leave
ret
The error raised is:
call_function.s:14:3: error: 32-bit absolute addressing is not supported in 64-bit mode
movl x, %eax;
^
I have also tried moving the value by first adding the $ character in front of x, however, a clang error is raised:
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
Does anyone know how the value stored in x can be successfully moved to %eax? I am using x86 assembly on Mac OSX and compiling with gcc.
A RIP-relative addressing mode is the only good option for addressing static data on MacOS; the image base address is above 2^32 so 32-bit absolute addresses aren't usable even in position-dependent code (unlike x86-64 Linux). RIP-relative addressing of static data is position-independent, so it works even in position-independent executables (ASLR) and libraries.
movl x(%rip), %eax is the AT&T syntax for RIP-relative.
mov eax, dword ptr [rip+x] in GAS .intel_syntax noprefix.
Or, to get the address of a symbol into a register, lea x(%rip), %rdi
NASM syntax: mov eax, [rel x], or use default rel so [x] is RIP-relative.
See Mach-O 64-bit format does not support 32-bit absolute addresses. NASM Accessing Array for more background on what you can do on OS X, e.g. movabs x, %eax would be possible because the destination register is AL/AX/EAX/RAX. (64-bit absolute address, but don't do that because it's larger and not faster than a RIP-relative load.)
See also http://felixcloutier.com/x86/MOV.html.
I have written a small piece of assembly with AT&T syntax and have currently declared three variables in the .data section. However, when I attempt to move any of those variables to a register, such as %eax, an error from gcc is raised. The code and error message is below:
.data
x:.int 14
y:.int 4
str: .string "some string\n"
.globl _main
_main:
pushq %rbp
movq %rsp, %rbp
subq $16, %rsp
movl x, %eax; #attempting to move the value of x to %eax;
leave
ret
The error raised is:
call_function.s:14:3: error: 32-bit absolute addressing is not supported in 64-bit mode
movl x, %eax;
^
I have also tried moving the value by first adding the $ character in front of x, however, a clang error is raised:
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
Does anyone know how the value stored in x can be successfully moved to %eax? I am using x86 assembly on Mac OSX and compiling with gcc.
A RIP-relative addressing mode is the only good option for addressing static data on MacOS; the image base address is above 2^32 so 32-bit absolute addresses aren't usable even in position-dependent code (unlike x86-64 Linux). RIP-relative addressing of static data is position-independent, so it works even in position-independent executables (ASLR) and libraries.
movl x(%rip), %eax is the AT&T syntax for RIP-relative.
mov eax, dword ptr [rip+x] in GAS .intel_syntax noprefix.
Or, to get the address of a symbol into a register, lea x(%rip), %rdi
NASM syntax: mov eax, [rel x], or use default rel so [x] is RIP-relative.
See Mach-O 64-bit format does not support 32-bit absolute addresses. NASM Accessing Array for more background on what you can do on OS X, e.g. movabs x, %eax would be possible because the destination register is AL/AX/EAX/RAX. (64-bit absolute address, but don't do that because it's larger and not faster than a RIP-relative load.)
See also http://felixcloutier.com/x86/MOV.html.
I am trying to learn x86_64 assembly, and am using GCC as my assembler. The exact command I'm using is:
gcc -nostdlib tapydn.S -D__ASSEMBLY__
I'm mainly using gcc for its preprocessor. Here is tapydn.S:
.global _start
#include <asm-generic/unistd.h>
syscall=0x80
.text
_start:
movl $__NR_exit, %eax
movl $0x00, %ebx
int $syscall
This results in a segmentation fault. I believe the problem is with the following line:
movl $__NR_exit, %eax
I used __NR_exit because it was more descriptive than some magic number. However, it appears that my usage of it is incorrect. I believe this to be the case because when I change the line in question to the following, it runs fine:
movl $0x01, %eax
Further backing up this trail of thought is the contents of usr/include/asm-generic/unistd.h:
#define __NR_exit 93
__SYSCALL(__NR_exit, sys_exit)
I expected the value of __NR_exit to be 1, not 93! Clearly I am misunderstanding its purpose and consequently its usage. For all I know, I'm getting lucky with the $0x01 case working (much like undefined behaviour in C++), so I kept digging...
Next, I looked for the definition of sys_exit. I couldn't find it. I tried using it anyway as follows (with and without the preceeding $):
movl $sys_exit, %eax
This wouldn't link:
/tmp/cc7tEUtC.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0x1): undefined reference to `sys_exit'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
My guess is that it's a symbol in one of the system libraries and I'm not linking it due to my passing -nostdlib to GCC. I'd like to avoid linking such a large library for just one symbol if possible.
In response to Jester's comment about mixing 32 and 64 bit constants, I tried using the value 0x3C as suggested:
movq $0x3C, %eax
movq $0x00, %ebx
This also resulting a segmentation fault. I also tried swapping out eax and ebx for rax and rbx:
movq $0x3C, %rax
movq $0x00, %rbx
The segmentation fault remained.
Jester then commented stating that I should be using syscall rather than int $0x80:
.global _start
#include <asm-generic/unistd.h>
.text
_start:
movq $0x3C, %rax
movq $0x00, %rbx
syscall
This works, but I was later informed that I should be using rdi instead of rbx as per the System V AMD64 ABI:
movq $0x00, %rdi
This also works fine, but still ends up using the magic number 0x3C for the system call number.
Wrapping up, my questions are as follows:
What is the correct usage of __NR_exit?
What should I be using instead of a magic number for the exit system call?
The correct header file to get the system call numbers is sys/syscall.h. The constants are called SYS_### where ### is the name of the system call you are interested in. The __NR_### macros are implementation details and should not be used. As a rule of thumb, if an identifier begins with an underscore it should not be used, if it begins with two it should definitely not be used. The arguments go into rdi, rsi, rdx, r10, r8, and r9. Here is a sample program for Linux:
#include <sys/syscall.h>
.globl _start
_start:
mov $SYS_exit,%eax
xor %edi,%edi
syscall
These conventions are mostly portable to other UNIX-like operating systems.
Now that i know u can use gcc for Intel syntax instead of default at&t with
gcc -S -masm=intel test.c
There is this line
mov DWORD PTR [ebp-16], OFFSET FLAT:base
Is it the same as mov dword[ebp-16], base?
Otherwise what must i do?
Yes, mov dword [ebp - 16], base is correct NASM syntax to store the label address to 4 bytes of memory at EBP-16.
I haven't seen offset flat: for a while - I think it's obsolete, but it's what GAS's idea of .intel_syntax noprefix used to demand (I had to look at Gas's source code to find that out). gcc -masm=intel uses it when using symbol addresses as immediates, but offset base works, too, in GAS.
It means the same as offset to MASM, or the unadorned variable name in NASM.
I'm pretty new to x64-assembly on the Mac, so I'm getting confused porting some 32-bit code in 64-bit.
The program should simply print out a message via the printf function from the C standart library.
I've started with this code:
section .data
msg db 'This is a test', 10, 0 ; something stupid here
section .text
global _main
extern _printf
_main:
push rbp
mov rbp, rsp
push msg
call _printf
mov rsp, rbp
pop rbp
ret
Compiling it with nasm this way:
$ nasm -f macho64 main.s
Returned following error:
main.s:12: error: Mach-O 64-bit format does not support 32-bit absolute addresses
I've tried to fix that problem byte changing the code to this:
section .data
msg db 'This is a test', 10, 0 ; something stupid here
section .text
global _main
extern _printf
_main:
push rbp
mov rbp, rsp
mov rax, msg ; shouldn't rax now contain the address of msg?
push rax ; push the address
call _printf
mov rsp, rbp
pop rbp
ret
It compiled fine with the nasm command above but now there is a warning while compiling the object file with gcc to actual program:
$ gcc main.o
ld: warning: PIE disabled. Absolute addressing (perhaps -mdynamic-no-pic) not
allowed in code signed PIE, but used in _main from main.o. To fix this warning,
don't compile with -mdynamic-no-pic or link with -Wl,-no_pie
Since it's a warning not an error I've executed the a.out file:
$ ./a.out
Segmentation fault: 11
Hope anyone knows what I'm doing wrong.
The 64-bit OS X ABI complies at large to the System V ABI - AMD64 Architecture Processor Supplement. Its code model is very similar to the Small position independent code model (PIC) with the differences explained here. In that code model all local and small data is accessed directly using RIP-relative addressing. As noted in the comments by Z boson, the image base for 64-bit Mach-O executables is beyond the first 4 GiB of the virtual address space, therefore push msg is not only an invalid way to put the address of msg on the stack, but it is also an impossible one since PUSH does not support 64-bit immediate values. The code should rather look similar to:
; this is what you *would* do for later args on the stack
lea rax, [rel msg] ; RIP-relative addressing
push rax
But in that particular case one needs not push the value on the stack at all. The 64-bit calling convention mandates that the fist 6 integer/pointer arguments are passed in registers RDI, RSI, RDX, RCX, R8, and R9, exactly in that order. The first 8 floating-point or vector arguments go into XMM0, XMM1, ..., XMM7. Only after all the available registers are used or there are arguments that cannot fit in any of those registers (e.g. a 80-bit long double value) the stack is used. 64-bit immediate pushes are performed using MOV (the QWORD variant) and not PUSH. Simple return values are passed back in the RAX register. The caller must also provide stack space for the callee to save some of the registers.
printf is a special function because it takes variable number of arguments. When calling such functions AL (the low byte of RAX) should be set to the number of floating-point arguments, passed in the vector registers. Also note that RIP-relative addressing is preferred for data that lies within 2 GiB of the code.
Here is how gcc translates printf("This is a test\n"); into assembly on OS X:
xorl %eax, %eax # (1)
leaq L_.str(%rip), %rdi # (2)
callq _printf # (3)
L_.str:
.asciz "This is a test\n"
(this is AT&T style assembly, source is left, destination is right, register names are prefixed with %, data width is encoded as a suffix to the instruction name)
At (1) zero is put into AL (by zeroing the whole RAX which avoids partial-register delays) since no floating-point arguments are being passed. At (2) the address of the string is loaded in RDI. Note how the value is actually an offset from the current value of RIP. Since the assembler doesn't know what this value would be, it puts a relocation request in the object file. The linker then sees the relocation and puts the correct value at link time.
I am not a NASM guru, but I think the following code should do it:
default rel ; make [rel msg] the default for [msg]
section .data
msg: db 'This is a test', 10, 0 ; something stupid here
section .text
global _main
extern _printf
_main:
push rbp ; re-aligns the stack by 16 before call
mov rbp, rsp
xor eax, eax ; al = 0 FP args in XMM regs
lea rdi, [rel msg]
call _printf
mov rsp, rbp
pop rbp
ret
No answer yet has explained why NASM reports
Mach-O 64-bit format does not support 32-bit absolute addresses
The reason NASM won't do this is explained in Agner Fog's Optimizing Assembly manual in section 3.3 Addressing modes under the subsection titled 32-bit absolute addressing in 64 bit mode he writes
32-bit absolute addresses cannot be used in Mac OS X, where addresses are above 2^32 by
default.
This is not a problem on Linux or Windows. In fact I already showed this works at static-linkage-with-glibc-without-calling-main. That hello world code uses 32-bit absolute addressing with elf64 and runs fine.
#HristoIliev suggested using rip relative addressing but did not explain that 32-bit absolute addressing in Linux would work as well. In fact if you change lea rdi, [rel msg] to lea rdi, [msg] it assembles and runs fine with nasm -efl64 but fails with nasm -macho64
Like this:
section .data
msg db 'This is a test', 10, 0 ; something stupid here
section .text
global _main
extern _printf
_main:
push rbp
mov rbp, rsp
xor al, al
lea rdi, [msg]
call _printf
mov rsp, rbp
pop rbp
ret
You can check that this is an absolute 32-bit address and not rip relative with objdump. However, it's important to point out that the preferred method is still rip relative addressing. Agner in the same manual writes:
There is absolutely no reason to use absolute addresses for simple memory operands. Rip-
relative addresses make instructions shorter, they eliminate the need for relocation at load
time, and they are safe to use in all systems.
So when would use use 32-bit absolute addresses in 64-bit mode? Static arrays is a good candidate. See the following subsection Addressing static arrays in 64 bit mode. The simple case would be e.g:
mov eax, [A+rcx*4]
where A is the absolute 32-bit address of the static array. This works fine with Linux but once again you can't do this with Mac OS X because the image base is larger than 2^32 by default. To to this on Mac OS X see example 3.11c and 3.11d in Agner's manual. In example 3.11c you could do
mov eax, [(imagerel A) + rbx + rcx*4]
Where you use the extern reference from Mach O __mh_execute_header to get the image base. In example 3.11c you use rip relative addressing and load the address like this
lea rbx, [rel A]; rel tells nasm to do [rip + A]
mov eax, [rbx + 4*rcx] ; A[i]
According to the documentation for the x86 64bit instruction set http://download.intel.com/products/processor/manual/325383.pdf
PUSH only accepts 8, 16 and 32bit immediate values (64bit registers and register addressed memory blocks are allowed though).
PUSH msg
Where msg is a 64bit immediate address will not compile as you found out.
What calling convention is _printf defined as in your 64bit library?
Is it expecting the parameter on the stack or using a fast-call convention where the parameters on in registers? Because x86-64 makes more general purpose registers available the fast-call convention is used more often.