boricj

27 ms·

361.
by boricj 3y ago
Funnily enough I'm doing something similar, but with the extra step of turning parts of programs into object files first. That means I'm not limited to extant object files, but it requires some amount of reverse-engineering to mak
362.
by boricj 3y ago
Ghidra extension for delinking programs back into object files: https://github.com/boricj/ghidra-delinker-extension In short, this Ghidra extension allows one to reconstruct relocation tables through analysis and then
363.
by boricj 3y ago
I've been thinking about it for a couple of minutes and here's the best description I can make in computer terms. For sight, it's a cross between off-screen rendering and overlay rendering. It doesn't feel like part of t
364.
by boricj 3y ago
They have replacements for some of these artifacts, like rln for aln (linker), rmac for mac (assembler) or slightly patched GCC 3.4.6 + binutils 2.16.1a for the 68000 CPU, some being adapted from parent forks or related tooling whose source
365.
by boricj 3y ago
The Atari Jaguar homebrew community is still using statically-linked Linux a.out executables built around 1995 ( https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/4c449fab-8135-5057-7d2c-7b94... ), at least to some extent.
366.
by boricj 3y ago
> Real HN readers would have vastly different levels of contextual knowledge and excitement, which we want to simulate with more specific agents mapping to real HN readers with different interests and areas of expertise. It would be inte
367.
by boricj 3y ago
Hmm... Let's try with the ridiculously esoteric thing I'm currently tinkering with: > "Show HN: Ghidra object file exporter extension" - "I'm working on a reverse engineering technique which allows me to unl
368.
by boricj 3y ago
I've been working on a specific reverse-engineering technique called unlinking [1] on-and-off for the past 16 months or so. I'm on my third prototype (first a set of Ghidra scripts written in Jython [2], then a fork of Ghidra [3
369.
by boricj 3y ago
Anywhere. There are lots of examples on the topic ; running NetBSD driver code inside NetBSD's user-land is the simplest use-case ( https://www.netbsd.org/docs/rump/sptut.html ), but that code is portable witho
370.
by boricj 3y ago
NetBSD has architectured their drivers to be basically static archives reusable anywhere. It's part of the NetBSD rump kernel.
371.
by boricj 3y ago
The Gaulle considered the United Kingdom too closely aligned with the United States for comfort. At the time, De Gaulle's first veto on that topic came shortly after the US agreed to supply the UK with Polaris missiles for the UK'
372.
by boricj 3y ago
That's not my experience as a French student in the early 2010s. At the very least, I remember that the only process creation model I saw in class was fork()+exec() and there were no disclaimers about it.
373.
by boricj 3y ago
There are a lot of things wrong with plain standard POSIX: - it's hopelessly out of date and incomplete w.r.t. modern expectations - fork() is very problematic for multiple reasons, especially in a modern environment ( https:/&#x2
374.
by boricj 3y ago
The issue with Unix pipelines is that they handle arrays of structured data very poorly. Since everything is just a stream of bytes, non-trivial pipelines often need to shuffle data around to make the next stage happy because there is no st
375.
by boricj 3y ago
reverse engineering: 5 entries Ghidra: 1 entry (mine) On one hand it does bring some level of perspective on the popularity of a particular topic you're into. My first reaction was "Just 0.5% for reverse-engineering? I guess I&#x2
376.
by boricj 3y ago
https://boricj.net/ About two months ago, there was an Ask HN about the most interesting interesting tech you built for just yourself [1]. In this topic, I shared about my Ghidra modifications to unlink pieces of an executa
377.
by boricj 3y ago
As a French, we tend to change political regimes every so often. Since 1789 we've had five republics, two empires and a couple of other things. I would bet that I'll outlive the fifth republic because of that. If anything, keeping
378.
by boricj 3y ago
Funnily enough, the file rv.h does use stdint.h if available and contains the following comment: > All I want for Christmas is C89 with stdint.h
379.
by boricj 3y ago
Usually, people first buy a computer and then hear about Linux later, not the other way around.
380.
by boricj 3y ago
This reminds me of the Uzebox [1], a video game console based on an ATMega644, but the RP2040 in this looks far more powerful at a glance. How far could this realistically be pushed? [1] https://uzebox.org/
381.
by boricj 3y ago
The only other equivalent API in broad use today that I'm aware of would be the Kernel32.dll subset of Win32 [1]. Not that it's perfect (so much accumulated cruft) or what I would call modern (still has a lot of ambient authority
382.
by boricj 3y ago
It looks like one can easily call fork() in an unsafe block from Rust [1], assuming it's provided by the target's libc. OpenVMS for example does not provide fork(). What it does provide is vfork() by doing some internal book-keepi
383.
by boricj 3y ago
What the system call ABI that my modern operating system ought to have is not one that thinks fork() as a fundamental primitive is fit for purpose on modern computers [1], for starters. Mind you, my grievances on the design and typical impl
384.
by boricj 3y ago
> I think WASI and WASIX is an EXTREMELY important API for the future of computing. It's a chance to create a superior operating system runtime interface. Superior operating system runtime interface and POSIX don't rhyme. The f
385.
by boricj 3y ago
WASIX seems to be basically POSIX for WASM (POSIX/WASIX). It is probably an explicit design goal to be able to run POSIX-compliant programs on it. The fact that POSIX is 1970s legacy, rusted beyond salvaging and an extremely poor fit f
386.
by boricj 3y ago
I tried to upstream some of my refactorings/modifications needed to support this, but it was rejected by upstream [1]. I don't blame the Ghidra project for this decision ; my modifications are fairly intrusive (modifying the reloc
387.
by boricj 3y ago
I got inspired by various decompilation projects of old video games and decided to do one myself. I specifically chose "Tenchu: Stealth Assassins", a game for the PlayStation. I haven't asked around, but I assumed nobody else
388.
by boricj 3y ago
Thanks! If you want to take a look at the source code, here are some pointers: - The relocation synthesizer for MIPS: https://github.com/boricj/ghidra/blob/feature/elfrelocatebleobjectexporter/Ghi
389.
by boricj 3y ago
I've modified Ghidra in order to unlink pieces of an executable back into relocatable object files. To keep things simple, source code files are compiled into object files which are linked into an executable. Object files have sections
390.
by boricj 4y ago
Another feature of the MutexProtected implementation in SerenityOS is the ability to either obtain an exclusive lock (writable) or a shared lock (read-only). A shared lock provides a const reference to the protected value and therefore enfo

More ›