arm_now

arm_now is an easy way to instantly setup and start a virtual machine, a lot of CPU architectures are supported.

I mainly use this for security purpose (reverse/exploit).

Install

$ pip3 install https://github.com/nongiach/arm_now/archive/master.zip

Start an arm Virtual Machine

$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ arm_now start armv5-eabi --clean
Welcome to Buildroot
buildroot login: root
# uname -m
armv7l

Start a microblazeel Virtual Machine

$ arm_now start microblazeel --clean
Welcome to Buildroot
buildroot login: root
# uname -m
microblaze

The current directory can be shared with the guest

This might not work if there are a lot of files in the current directory. Use the --sync option, you have to type the command save before exiting the guest.

$ ls
a_file_created_on_the_host
$ arm_now start armv5-eabi --clean --sync
Welcome to Buildroot
buildroot login: root
# ls
a_file_created_on_the_host
# touch a_file_create_on_the_guest
# ls
a_file_created_on_the_host a_file_create_on_the_guest
# save
# poweroff
( back to host, you can also ctrl+] to kill qemu )
$ ls
a_file_created_on_the_host a_file_create_on_the_guest

Supported

CPU	images
arm	armv5-eabi, armv6-eabihf, armv7-eabihf
m68k	m68k-coldfire
microblaze	microblazeel
mips	mips32, mips32el, mips64-n32, mips64el-n32
nios2	nios2
powerpc	powerpc64-e5500, powerpc64-power8, powerpc64le-power8
sh4	sh-sh4
x86	x86-64-core-i7, x86-core2, x86-i686

// TODO: add boot time to this array.

Upcoming features

• a fully working package manager (I will add it this weekend, come back next week!) // https://github.com/Entware/Entware-ng
• briged network

Q & A

How to exit qemu

Press "Ctrl + ]" (Ctrl + altgr + ] on azerty).

Where filesystem and kernel come from ?

It's based on buildroot, we download them from https://toolchains.bootlin.com/downloads/releases/toolchains/

Is it a real virtual machine ?

Yes, it's a real virtual machine we use qemu-system-*. It's not a container or something based on chroot.

How can I help ?

I do this project as a hobby, if you find bugs report and I will fix, the code source is very small about 300 lines of python, don't be afraid to pull request.

• A lot of cpu arch are still not supported, bfin, sparc, xtensa .., at line 28 of arm_now.py you will find a dict that you can play with to add new cpu arch.
• setup network interfaces
• add package manager (my next priority). opkg with https://wiki.openwrt.org/about/mirrors or http://pkg.entware.net/binaries/
• full support of cpio rootfs
• make a script based on buildroot that will compile every existing arch ? this sounds like hours of work :/
• let the user choose the libc, (musl, glibc, uclibc)
• allow the user to give any binary as input and start it in the right cpu arch, all dependencies should be automatically resolved and installed
• add windows host support (checkout "old" branch)

Who to thanks ?

linux kernel, gcc, busybox, qemu, https://buildroot.org, https://toolchains.bootlin.com ...

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By @chaign_c #HexpressoTeam.