Stuff

https://github.com/rswier/c4 C in 4 functions

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7237963/a-c-implementation-that-detects-undefined-behavior See compcert and frama-c

static keyword

gcc flags -E stop after preprcoessor. #include literally includes header file -s output assembly (don’t assemble) -c output object file

Wall -Werrer different warning flas https://stackoverflow.com/questions/399850/best-compiler-warning-level-for-c-c-compilers
-ffunction-sections

suggestions for secure flags

-Wall
-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2
-fsanitize=bounds fsanitize-undefined-trap-on-error
-fstrict-flex-arrays

Getting the maximum of your C compiler, for security GCC’s new fortification level: The gains and costs

gcc -shared foo.o -o foo.so - makes a dynamically linkable file. You actually have to make a object file first before you do this

g++ is gcc with some appropriate flags set for C++

-lgsl is the same as -l gsl and looks in system paths for a file called libgsl.o. It automatically appends .o and lib. Very odd to my sensibilities.

-I is useful to help

Header files and prototypes actually become “code” in the sense they are entries in the object file.

CPP

The C preprocessor.

It can be run on its own

#include literally brings that file in. <> vs "" is a difference in what search path it uses an prioritizes.
#define mcpp is an alternative

It can be programmed. This is typically ill adviuced http://conal.net/blog/posts/the-c-language-is-purely-functional An amusing essay saying that cpp is a pureply function programminbg language

__COUNTER__ is an autoincrementing thing There are things for string concatenation

Make

An amusing essay that make is logic programming language. It is true. The file system is the database of sorts.

There is a default makefile that is included with every make invocation if you don’t turn it off.

CMake

https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/cmake/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOmUHM0sFOc&ab_channel=CyrillStachniss

Loading

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29104841 http://dbp-consulting.com/tutorials/debugging/linuxProgramStartup.html

Sanitization

Dynamic Bug detection technique SoK sanitizing for security. Really interesting.

https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki Address sanitizer ASAN memory snatizier -fsanitize=memory https://github.com/google/sanitizers ThreadSanitizier - detect race conditions UBSan undefine behavior sanitizer

valgrind SAFECode, and SoftBound

See also notes on CTF stuff and compilers

Shadow memory. mapping of memory to shadow memory where you can hold metadata. Guard pages - try to access an overflow and hit unmapped page, you’ll crash

fat pointers - make pointer a struct tagged pointer - use unused bits in pointer. 64 bits is too many. ALignment makes low bits unused

The state of static analysis in the GCC 12 compiler

-fanalyzer
-Wanalyzer-tainted-array-index
-Wanalyzer-null-dereference

https://security.googleblog.com/2022/05/retrofitting-temporal-memory-safety-on-c.html

Build Systems

Shake https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2018/03/build-systems.pdf build systems a la carte

Stressing C compilers

Csmith undefined behavior canaries

a guide to undefined behavior

Cosmocc

https://github.com/jart/cosmopolitan

echo '
// hello.c
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  printf("hello world\n");
}
' > /tmp/hello.c
~/Downloads/cosmocc/bin/cosmocc -o /tmp/hello /tmp/hello.c
file /tmp/hello # /tmp/hello: DOS/MBR boot sector; partition 1 : ID=0x7f, active, start-CHS (0x0,0,1), end-CHS (0x3ff,255,63), startsector 0, 4294967295 sectors 
# what
/tmp/hello
/tmp/hello --strace
/tmp/hello --ftrace

the strace and ftrace options are cool. WHat else might go in there?

ape command for “faster”?

Allocators

DieHard error resitant allocator Ptmalloc mimalloc https://github.com/microsoft/mimalloc https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2019/06/mimalloc-tr-v1.pdf “The other allocators are Google’s tcmalloc (tc, tag:gperftools-2.8.1) used in Chrome, Facebook’s jemalloc (je, tag:5.2.1) by Jason Evans used in Firefox and FreeBSD, the Intel thread building blocks allocator (tbb, tag:v2020.3), rpmalloc (rp,tag:1.4.1) by Mattias Jansson, the original scalable Hoard (git:d880f72) allocator by Emery Berger [1], the memory compacting Mesh (git:67ff31a) allocator by Bobby Powers et al [8], and finally the default system allocator (glibc, 2.31) (based on PtMalloc2).” tcmalloc jemalloc tbb allocator rpmalloc hoard mesh

Strategies