dumptext

dump an ELF's .text section in various formats and optionally verify that it does not contain any null bytes.

Installation

go install github.com/erdii/dumptext@main

Usage

Usage: dumptext path/to/elf/binary
Usage: cat path/to/elf/binary | dumptext
Description: Reads the .text section from an ELF binary and dumps (optionally formatted) bytes to stdout.
Flags:
        Envvar: FORMAT=escape(default)|dump|raw - specifies output format.
        Envvar: VALIDATE=1 - validates that there are no null bytes in the data.

Formats

Raw

Dumps raw bytes from the .text section in the host's native endianness.

Escape

Dumps the bytes from the .text section as a hex-escaped string. Handy for copy-pasting into terminals or code.

Example:

nasm -f elf64 misc/example-shellcode.asm -o /dev/stdout | FORMAT=escape dumptext
# =>
# \x6a\x31\x58\x99\xcd\x80\x89\xc3\x89\xc1\x6a\x46\x58\xcd\x80\xb0\x0b\x52\x68\x6e\x2f\x73\x68\x68\x2f\x2f\x62\x69\x89\xe3\x89\xd1\xcd\x80

Dump

Prints a hexdump of the bytes in the .text section.

Example:

nasm -f elf64 misc/example-shellcode.asm -o /dev/stdout | FORMAT=dump dumptext
# =>
# 00000000  6a 31 58 99 cd 80 89 c3  89 c1 6a 46 58 cd 80 b0  |j1X.......jFX...|
# 00000010  0b 52 68 6e 2f 73 68 68  2f 2f 62 69 89 e3 89 d1  |.Rhn/shh//bi....|
# 00000020  cd 80                                             |..|