how to single-step code on-target with no jtag, breakpoints, simulator, emulator

左心房为你撑大大i 提交于 2020-01-06 06:01:13

问题


Let's say you have a pointer to function whose source you do not have and which is "untrusted" because it might read/write to disallowed memory region.

Before it executes each assembly instruction, you want to verify that it doesn't access disallowed memory regions.

The OS is (almost) bare-metal i.e. a custom RTOS (so no Linux or QNX).

This is for a functionality that needs to be enabled not only during development but during normal runtime.

Ideally, it'd run something like this:

void (*fptr)(int);
fptr = &someFunction; // untrusted, don't have source
// enable interrupts for each assembly instruction
_EN_INT();
// call the function
fptr();
// everytime the PC increments, some other code runs which verifies that if any load/stores are executed, it doesn't access some disallowed memory range

// disable interrupts for each assembly instruction
_DIS_INT();

QUESTION

Is it possible to call that function and pause execution after every assembly instruction?


回答1:


The OS is (almost) bare-metal i.e. a custom RTOS (so no Linux or QNX).

My answer assumes that you can modify the "OS" the way you need it...

Cortex MK20DX256VLH7

This seems to be a Cortex M4 CPU.

how to single-step code on-target with no jtag, breakpoints

From the doc, it doesn't say whether you NEED an external debugger to resume execution.

If the CPU is really stopped, you'll definitely need an external signal (e.g. from a debugger).

However most CPUs support software debugging. This means that an interrupt service routine is executed whenever a breakpoint is hit. To continue execution you simply return from the interrupt service routine.

I don't know about the Cortex M4 but for the Cortex M3 you'll have to set some special registers to enable that feature. Whenever a "BKPT" instruction is hit then interrupt #12 (*) is executed.

For code in RAM you simply write an BKPT instruction (0xBExx, e.g. 0xBEBE) to the address where you want to set your breakpoint. (Before writing you read out the value to be able to restore it later on).

For code in Flash the M3 has a "Flash patching unit" which allows you to specify up to three addresses which shall be read out as 0xBExx (0xBEBE ?) even if other data is stored there. This allows you to set up to 3 breakpoints in Flash.

Interesting for you: The register controlling the debug features in the M3 (named "DEMCR") also has a bit named "MON_STEP":

If you set this bit in interrupt handler #12 then exactly one instruction is executed after returning from the interrupt handler and interrupt #12 is triggered again. The use case for this feature is - of course - single-stepping code!

To stop single-stepping you'll have to clear the MON_STEP bit again...

Important 1:

I don't know if the MK20DX256VLH7 really has all these features. However because it is a Cortex M4 chip and the M4 should have nearly all features of the M3 these features should be present...

Important 2:

Implementing single-stepping and debugging is not done quickly. Assembly language knowledge will be very helpful and you'll need a lot of time...

From the doc, ...

You will not only need the documentation for the MK20DX256VLH7 from NXP but you'll also need the Cortex M4 documentation from ARM.

(*) Offset 4*12 in the vector table is meant here (which is named "IRQ(-4)" in some ARM documents); not IRQ12.




回答2:


yes the ARM emulator/interpreter sounds exactly like what I want. Is there a free one?

qemu is open-source, most of it is GPLv2. https://wiki.qemu.org/License. You'd probably need to modify it a lot, because it's designed for use as a stand-alone wrapper for a whole Unix process (qemu-user) or whole machine (qemu-system).


I googled, and there's also http://www.unicorn-engine.org/ which is designed to be used as part of a larger program (written in C with bindings for calling from various languages). It's also GPLv2 (not LGPL), so you can use it if the rest of your code is also Free software.

It's actually based on the CPU-emulation code from QEMU; they stripped out all the device / BIOS emulation stuff to make a flexible library for just emulating CPUs.

Presumably you could configure some memory protections for it and set up the starting machine state, and let it run your function (with a return address that leads to some code that hands control back to your main code?)



来源:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47207384/how-to-single-step-code-on-target-with-no-jtag-breakpoints-simulator-emulator

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