Readme.md

Introduction

This document is for accumulating basic ELF format related definition and commands.

Prepare working environment

1. Start container

   docker run -it centos:8

2. Install dependencies

   # for xxd command
   yum install vim-common
   
   yum install gcc
   
   # for better syntax highlight
   yum install vim
   

3. Build testing program

// File name: main.c
// Build command: gcc ./main.c -o main
#include <stdio.h>

int main() 
{
    printf("Hello World!\n");
    return 0;
}

Commands

• Display program in hexadecimal: xxd -l 64 ./main

• List symbol table: readelf --symbols ./main

• Display ELF header in a more readable way: readelf -h ./main

Refernece

1. Executable and Linkable Format

2. Reverse Engineering | ELF File Format | Beginners

3. Mach-O

   MacOS is using its own object format Mach-O

4. Understanding the ELF File Format

   This fie described the benefits of standardizing binary file format with ELF format.

5. In-depth: ELF - The Extensible & Linkable Format

   This video provides a structured introduction of ELF

6. Application binary interface

   ELF format is first published in the specification for the application binary interface(ABI) of Unix

   application binary interface(ABI)

    > This documents more detailed learning about ABI