Vector35 / Vector35/binaryninja-api
Awkward lifting for AArch64 system register writes
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- Dominant language
- C++
- Stars
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- Avg merge
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- Merged PRs (30d)
- 19
Description
Take the following assembly:
msr daifset, #0x2
This writes 0x2 to the DAIFSet system register.
This gets rendered in LLIL and higher) as:
daifset = _WriteStatusReg(2)
This is misleading since daifset is not a local variable—it is a system register—and it looks identical to other (actual) variables in HLIL. Furthermore, representing this as an assignment implies that _WriteStatusReg returns a value (which it does not).
A better rendering would simply be:
_WriteStatusReg(daifset, 2)
As this does not create the false impression that the result of this expression is stored, and is also simply easier to read.
Contributor guide
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Reproduce the AArch64 msr daifset, #0x2 example and trace how it is rendered from LLIL into HLIL. Done means the output represents _WriteStatusReg(daifset, 2) as a call without assigning its result to a local-looking daifset variable.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- reverse-engineering
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100