ASCII code interpretation (assembly) - ascii

First of all, thanks for all the help thus far.
Complete code can be found here
I have trouble understanding these lines. I wrote some comments...
The line, for example, mov es:[si+6], al means move data in al to the memory address marked by si+6 (I think this would be an offset calculation).
Then what is add si,40 in the loop?
Any helps mean everything to me! Thank you.
L0_95: ; this segment prints ASCII code 0 - 95
mov si,6 ; refers to the string we declared at the beginning
mov cx,4 ; I think this is the height?
C1A:
; this loop adds the name of the column
mov al,string[0]
mov es:[si],al
mov al,string[2]
mov es:[si+6],al
mov al,string[4]
mov es:[si+24],al
mov al,string[6]
mov es:[si+28],al
add si,40 ;;;; what is this line?
loop C1A
mov si,122 ;;;; and these three lines?
mov bx,0
mov cx,4
C1B:push cx
mov cx,24
add si,40
C1C:push cx
call DEC_CONVERT
add si,2
call HEX_CONVERT
add si,2
call BIN_CONVERT
add si,2
call CHAR_CONVERT
inc bx
add si,126
pop cx
loop C1C
pop cx
sub si,3840
loop C1B
ret
L96_191:

add si advances the si register by 40.
mov si,122 sets the si register to 122, probably the address of some data. The remaining two instructions should now be self-explanatory.

Related

Why does a function double dereference arguments stored on stack and how is that possible? [duplicate]

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Closed 7 months ago.
I tried to understand "lfunction" stack arguments loading to "flist" in following assembly code I found on a book (The book doesn't explain it. Code compiles and run without errors giving intended output displaying "The string is: ABCDEFGHIJ".) but I can't grasp the legality or logic of the code. What I don't understand is listed below.
In lfunction:
Non-volatile (as per Microsoft x64 calling convention) register RBX is not backed up before 'XOR'ing. (But it is not what bugs me most.)
In portion ";arguments on stack"
mov rax, qword [rbp+8+8+32]
mov bl,[rax]
Here [rbp+8+8+32] dereferences corresponding address stored in stack so RAX should
be loaded with value represented by'fourth' which is char 'D'(0x44) as per my understanding (Why qword?). And if so, what dereferencing char 'D' in second line can possibly mean (There should be a memory address to dereference but 'D' is a char.)?
Original code is listed below:
%include "io64.inc"
; stack.asm
extern printf
section .data
first db "A"
second db "B"
third db "C"
fourth db "D"
fifth db "E"
sixth db "F"
seventh db "G"
eighth db "H"
ninth db "I"
tenth db "J"
fmt db "The string is: %s",10,0
section .bss
flist resb 14 ;length of string plus end 0
section .text
global main
main:
push rbp
mov rbp,rsp
sub rsp, 8
mov rcx, flist
mov rdx, first
mov r8, second
mov r9, third
push tenth ; now start pushing in
push ninth ; reverse order
push eighth
push seventh
push sixth
push fifth
push fourth
sub rsp,32 ; shadow
call lfunc
add rsp,32+8
; print the result
mov rcx, fmt
mov rdx, flist
sub rsp,32+8
call printf
add rsp,32+8
leave
ret
;––––––––––––––––––––––––-
lfunc:
push rbp
mov rbp,rsp
xor rax,rax ;clear rax (especially higher bits)
;arguments in registers
mov al,byte[rdx] ; move content argument to al
mov [rcx], al ; store al to memory(resrved at section .bss)
mov al, byte[r8]
mov [rcx+1], al
mov al, byte[r9]
mov [rcx+2], al
;arguments on stack
xor rbx,rbx
mov rax, qword [rbp+8+8+32] ; rsp + rbp + return address + shadow
mov bl,[rax]
mov [rcx+3], bl
mov rax, qword [rbp+48+8]
mov bl,[rax]
mov [rcx+4], bl
mov rax, qword [rbp+48+16]
mov bl,[rax]
mov [rcx+5], bl
mov rax, qword [rbp+48+24]
mov bl,[rax]
mov [rcx+6], bl
mov rax, qword [rbp+48+32]
mov bl,[rax]
mov [rcx+7], bl
mov rax, qword [rbp+48+40]
mov bl,[rax]
mov [rcx+8], bl
mov rax, qword [rbp+48+48]
mov bl,[rax]
mov [rcx+9], bl
mov bl,0 ; terminating zero
mov [rcx+10], bl
leave
ret
Additional info:
I cannot look at register values just after line 50 which
corresponds to "XOR RAX, RAX" in lfunc because debugger auto skips
single stepping to line 37 of main function which corresponds to
"add RSP, 32+8". Even If I marked breakpoints in between
aforementioned lines in lfunc code the debugger simply hangs so I
have to manually abort debugging.
In portion ";arguments on stack"
mov rax, qword [rbp+8+8+32]
mov bl,[rax]
I am mentioning this again to be more precise of what am asking because question was marked as duplicate and
provided links with answers that doesn't address my specific issue. At line
[rbp+8+8+32] == 0x44 because clearly, mov with square brackets dereferences reference address (which I assume 64bit width) rbp+3h. So, the size of 0x44 is byte. That is why ask "Why qword?" because it implies "lea [rbp+8+8+32]" which is a qword reference, not mov. So if [rbp+8+8+32] equals 0x44, then [rax] == [0x0000000000000044], which a garbage ( not relevant to our code here) address.

How to replace a store of EAX with a store of an immediate constant?

From my previous question, I asked how to change the nation code to what I needed it to be. I explored in the disassembly more and I found out exactly where I needed this change to be. In other files, the code seems to be:
mov ds:dword_73A9C8, 1
Where the file I'm trying to edit has it like
mov ds:dword_73A9C8, eax
I've tried to edit the file in IDA by hex to match it to the first line of code, however, the function, even after extending its length, seems to break each time I edit it.
The question I have is how can I change it from having eax being moved to having 1 being moved without breaking the function
sub_4A2B60 proc near
arg_0= dword ptr 4
mov eax, [esp+arg_0]
mov ds:dword_73A9C8, eax
retn
sub_4A2B60 endp
You could replace the 4 byte instruction mov eax, [esp + 4] with the sequence xor eax, eax inc eax nop that also has 4 bytes.
If 1 is what you want, then the return value in EAX should probably also be 1.

x86 Asm Insertion sort

I've tried reading about this all over the internet but here it is my problem. I am given a string of doublewords.
I have to order in decreasing order the string of the low words (least significant) from these doublewords. The high words remain unchanged.
For ex: strin DD 12345678h 1256ABCDh, 12AB4344h
the result would be 1234ABCDh, 12565678h, 12AB4344h.
Now I tried my best writting some code but it's not working properly, my insertion procedure. If you could take a look and tell me what I'm doing wrong, I'd be greatful.
I tried running it in td mode but I just can't figure out.
assume cs:code, ds:data
data segment
s dd 12345678h, 1256ABCDh, 12AB4344h
ls equ ($-s)/4 ;this is supposed to be the length of my source string
d dd ls dup (?) ;this is my destination string
aux dw ?
aux2 dw ?
data ends
code segment
insert proc
push di ;here I use the stack to get more free registers
push cx
cmp di, offset d ;if di=offset d it means that I didn't store any number yet
je addPrim
std ;we plan on working form right to left on the string for the next part
mov cx, di
sub cx, offset d ;here I find out with how many words I have to compare the word from AX
dec di
dec di ;since I work with doublewords, for some reason I thought I should decrease di
dec di ;3 times but here my procedure gets fuzzy and doesn't work properly anymore
repeta1: ;this repeat is supposed to compare the word from AX with the rest of the least
scasw ;significant words from es:di
jge DIplus2 ;if my number from AX is bigger or equal than what's in es:di, I increment
;di twice and store it
mov bx, word ptr es:[di+1] ;this part is supposed to interchange words but it's not
;working how I planned so I don't know how to change it
mov word ptr es:[di+2], bx
loop repeta1
jmp DIplus1
DIplus2:
inc di
DIplus1:
inc di
addPrim: ;this label just adds the first word in the destination string
stosw
pop cx
pop di
inc di
inc di
cld
ret
insert endp
start:
mov ax, data
mov ds, ax
mov es, ax
mov si, offset s
mov di, offset d
mov cx, ls ; store in cx the length of the strings
jcxz exit
repeta:
lodsw ;because of little endian, my first word will be my least significant word in the
;in the doubleword so right after it is moved in ax, i apply the procedure insert
call insert
lodsw ;here it moves in ax my most significan word in the dd, so i auto store it
stosw ;in my destination string
loop repeta
exit:
mov ax, 4c00h
int 21h
code ends
end start
ls equ ($-s)/4 ;this is supposed to be the length of my source string
This actually calculates the number of elements.
mov cx, di
sub cx, offset d ;here I find out with how many words ...
At the second invocation of your insert proc this will set CX=4 which is too big given a list of only 3 values. I suggest you divide CX by 4.
dec di
dec di ;since I work with doublewords...
dec di ;3 times but here my procedure gets fuzzy
This is certainly wrong. SCASW indicates you either decrement by 4 or not decrement at all!
mov bx, word ptr es:[di+1] ;this part is supposed to interchange words...
mov word ptr es:[di+2], bx
This cannot work since the offsets are only 1 byte apart!
jmp DIplus1
This yields an single increment of DI and thus an error because you want to store a word at that spot.

insertion sort in assembly does not work

I have tried to write an insertion sort in assembly (nasm), and it doesn't work (always sent segmentation fault).
I tried to search the source of the problem for really long time and I cannot find it,
can someone please help me to find the problem?
thank you.
sort:
pushad
mov ebp,esp;creating stack frame
mov ebx,[ebp+36]; ebx saves pointer to the array
mov ecx,[ebp+40];ecx saves the srray size
mov esi,4 ; i
for_l1:
;edx=temp,esi=i,edi=j
mov edx,[ebx+esi]
mov edi,esi;j=i
sub edi,4;j=i-1
while_l1:
cmp edx,[ebx+edi]; if(temp<array[j])
jge end_while1
;array[j+1]=array[j], j-=1
mov eax,[ebx+edi]
mov [ebx+edi+4],eax
sub edi,4
cmp edi,0
jge while_l1;if(j>=0)
end_while1:
;array[j+1]=temp
mov[ebx+edi+4],edx
add esi,4;i+=1
dec ecx; decreasing the size of the array needed to sort
cmp ecx,1;if(size==1)
jg for_l1
finished1:
popad
ret 8
Are you sure array size represents the number of elements and that it doesn't contain the total length of the array?
Then perhaps you could code
mov ecx,[ebp+40];ecx saves the srray size
shr ecx,2

Assembler (TASM x64) arrays and elements

I have an array of nine names:
.model tiny
.data
vardas1 db "Rokas",0ah,'$'
vardas2 db "Tomas",0ah,'$'
vardas3 db "Matas",0ah,'$'
vardas4 db "Domas",0ah,'$'
vardas5 db "Augis",0ah,'$'
vardas6 db "Vofka",0ah,'$'
vardas7 db "Marka",0ah,'$'
vardas8 db "Auris",0ah,'$'
vardas9 db "Edvis",0ah,'$'
vardai dw offset vardas1, offset vardas2, offset vardas3, offset vardas4, offset vardas5, offset vardas6, offset vardas7, offset vardas8, offset vardas9
.code
org 100h
I need to read a digit from keyboard, and then I need to print that name. For example I will push 5, and console should write "Augis". BTW, second code block aren't all code, just loop that doesn't work
paieska:
mov dx, offset _comment1 ; Just string name asking user to input digit
mov ah, 9
int 21h
mov j, 00h ; Trying to input the digit from keyboard
mov ah, 01h
mov dl, 0ah
int 21h
mov bx, offset vardai ; Add array "names" to bx register
add bx, cx ; Add cx for indexing
mov dx, [bx] ; Add first array element to dx register
add cx, 2 ; Increasing cx by 2, because I'm using data word not data byte
mov ah, 9 ; Try to print it
int 21h
cmp cx, j ; Try to compare cx (index of array) to mine inputed digit "j"
jne paieska
je end
mov ah, 01h
mov dl, 0ah ;NO NEED FOR THIS - INT21/01 DOES NOT USE DL
int 21h
MOV AH, '1' ; MIN INPUT CHAR
mov bx, offset vardai ; Add array "names" to bx register WELL, ASSIGN ACTUALLY
MOV CX,2 ;NUMBER OF BYTES TO ADD (WORDS, NOT BYTES)
LOOPN:
mov dx, [bx] ; name-pointer array element to dx register
CMP AH,AL ; MATCHING char?
JE PNAME ; YES, PRINT NAME
add bx, cx ; Add cx=2 for next name
inc AH ; next possible character input
CMP AH,'9'+1 ; allowed is '1'..'9'
jne loopn ; in allowed range
; input not 1..9
mov dx, offset errormessage
PNAME:
mov ah, 9 ; Try to print it
int 21h
jmp end
Well, I tried to edit your approach with CAPS, but it became too complicated.
Essentially, you are reading a character from the keyboard using function 01. This character arrives in AL. If all goes well, it should be '1'..'9'. Notice these are the ASCII characters '1'..'9', that is hex 31..39
Next step is to set BX to the start of the table, AH to the minimum character you anticipate and CX to 2 because the table contains words, not bytes.
Now we have a loop. Load X from the table, and check whether AL is equal to AH. If the user input 1, these will be equal, so go print the string.
Otherwise, add 2 to BX to point to the next entry in the table (this could have been done by ADD BX,2 or INC BX INC BX which would mean the MOV CX,2 would be unnecessary - just the way I wrote it...) and increment the '1' in AH to '2'.
The end-condition for the loop is when AH gets incremented from '9' to - well, ':' or '9'+1. If it hasn't reached that end-condition, then run around the loop until all of the values '1'..'9' have been tested. If you haven't got to PNAME yet, then there's an error because the character input wasn't allowed, so point to an error message and then print it.
Now jumping to the end - probably you'd want to terminate the program, so you'd execute
MOV AH,4CH
INT 21H

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