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More i386 xrefs #899

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@Arker123 Arker123 commented Nov 9, 2023

Referring to #885 (comment), this PR supplements additional xrefs discovered separately. For #885, the focus is solely on the UTF-decoder segment. 😄

@@ -465,6 +465,34 @@ def get_struct_string_candidates(pe: pefile.PE) -> Iterable[StructString]:
# dozens of seconds or more (suspect many minutes).


def get_raw_xrefs_rdata_i386(pe: pefile.PE, buf: bytes) -> Iterable[VA]:
"""
scan for raw xrefs in .rdata section
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what are raw xrefs? can you add an example disassembly listing and add some comments, please?

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from the screenshots in #885 (comment) I don't see if these are strings and it would help to have some comments explaining what the algorithm looks for

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Raw xrefs refer to unprocessed xrefs in the binary file, indicating points where strings can be divided. I'll add an example with comments.

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Thanks, can you share a few example binary hashes?

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@@ -465,6 +465,48 @@ def get_struct_string_candidates(pe: pefile.PE) -> Iterable[StructString]:
# dozens of seconds or more (suspect many minutes).


def get_raw_xrefs_rdata_i386(pe: pefile.PE, buf: bytes) -> Iterable[VA]:
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please add a few tests for these strings

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Suggested change
def get_raw_xrefs_rdata_i386(pe: pefile.PE, buf: bytes) -> Iterable[VA]:
def get_raw_xrefs_rdata(pe: pefile.PE, buf: bytes) -> Iterable[VA]:

This routine doesn't seem limited to i386 so lets remove that from the function name. Otherwise, we should add a check to the PE architecture to restrict it to i386.

If the data are virtual addresses (rather than RVAs), we could additionally use relocation entries to find pointers and/or verify this data is in fact a pointer.

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lgtm but let's also wait for @mr-tz

.rdata:004D6240 dd offset unk_4C85B3

From the disassembly, they are called as follows:
.text:00498E56 push ds:off_4D61E0[ecx*4]
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where does the length get stored?

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It's not; the raw xrefs are stored without explicit length information. Lengths are not included in this context. Do we need them, or is there a specific reason for considering length storage?

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no, I don't think we need them. but I wondered how Go is able to use the string data without an associated length.

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Currently, I couldn't find any specific information for Go, but I did come across a similar approach in Rust. I've kept it in the utils.py file, considering the possibility that we might encounter a similar scenario in the future when exploring other languages.

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I am still curious how this data can be used as a string without the length being stored somewhere.

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Hey @mr-tz, can we merge this?

floss/language/utils.py Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved
def get_raw_xrefs_rdata_i386(pe: pefile.PE, buf: bytes) -> Iterable[VA]:
"""
scan for raw xrefs in .rdata section.
raw xrefs are 32-bit absolute addresses to strings in .rdata section (i386).
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raw xrefs are 32-bit absolute addresses to strings in .rdata section (i386).

This routine doesn't validate that the destination is string-like data. Should it? If not, lets remove this part of the documentation.

if not buf:
return

low, high = get_image_range(pe)
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this appears to be the range of the entire file, not the .rdata section. please update the logic or documentation to make things consistent.

),
],
)
def test_raw_xrefs(request, string, offset, encoding, rust_strings):
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i think its good that we have integration tests that show the whole system working together to find the strings. I think we should also have some tests for the specific routines that you added, so we can verify their behavior directly. something like test_get_raw_xrefs.

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Hi, what should be the best approach to that? As there are not just test_get_raw_xrefs, but also others such as find_i386_push_xrefs, find_lea_xrefs, etc., should we test them too in a separate file or another PR? What are your thoughts?

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The concept here seems reasonable, though the documentation is inconsistent with the logic, so please fix that and then we can merge.

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4 participants