mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills

elf-inspection

ELF binary inspection skill for Linux.

소스 보기

사용 방법

  1. 설치 명령을 복사하고 자신의 에이전트 환경에 설치하기 전에 소스 패키지를 확인하세요.
  2. 필요한 도구, 인증 정보, 지원 환경은 원본 문서에서 확인하세요.
  3. 입력과 원하는 산출물을 설명하고 출처와 결과를 대조하세요.
npx skills add https://github.com/mohitmishra786/low-level-dev-skills --skill elf-inspection

시작 전 확인

  • 설치에는 모델 구독, API 한도, 파일 접근 권한이 포함되지 않습니다.
  • 별점 수와 설치 수는 활동 지표이며 독립적인 품질·보안 검증이 아닙니다.
원본 Skill 문서

원본 저장소의 제목, 예시, 코드, 표, 링크, 이미지를 유지해 표시합니다.

ELF Inspection

Purpose

Guide agents through inspecting Linux ELF binaries: symbol tables, section layout, dynamic linking, debug info, and diagnosing linker errors.

Triggers

  • "What libraries does this binary depend on?"
  • "Why is this binary so large?"
  • "I have an undefined reference or symbol not found at runtime"
  • "How do I check if debug info is in this binary?"
  • "How do I find what symbols a library exports?"
  • "How do I check if a binary is PIE / has RELRO?"

Workflow

1. Quick overview: file and size

bash
file prog                    # type, arch, linkage, stripped or not
size prog                    # section sizes: text, data, bss
size --format=sysv prog      # detailed per-section breakdown

2. Dynamic dependencies: ldd

bash
ldd ./prog                   # show all shared lib dependencies
ldd -v ./prog                # verbose: include symbol versions

# Check why a library is loaded
ldd ./prog | grep libssl

# For a library (not an executable)
ldd ./libfoo.so

If ldd shows not found, the shared library is missing from LD_LIBRARY_PATH or /etc/ld.so.conf.

Fix:

bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/path/to/libs:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
# Or install the library and run ldconfig
sudo ldconfig

3. Symbols: nm

bash
nm prog                       # all symbols (T=text, D=data, U=undefined, etc.)
nm -D ./libfoo.so             # dynamic symbols only
nm -C prog                    # demangle C++ symbols
nm --defined-only prog        # only defined symbols
nm -u prog                    # only undefined (needed) symbols
nm -S prog                    # include symbol size

# Search for a symbol
nm -D /usr/lib/libssl.so | grep SSL_read

Symbol type codes:

  • T / t — text (code): global / local
  • D / d — data (initialised): global / local
  • B / b — BSS (uninitialised): global / local
  • R / r — read-only data: global / local
  • U — undefined (needs to be provided at link time)
  • W / w — weak symbol

4. Sections: readelf

bash
readelf -h prog               # ELF header (arch, type, entry point)
readelf -S prog               # all sections
readelf -l prog               # program headers (segments)
readelf -d prog               # dynamic section (like ldd but raw)
readelf -s prog               # symbol table
readelf -r prog               # relocations
readelf -n prog               # notes (build ID, ABI tag)
readelf --debug-dump=info prog | head -100  # DWARF info
readelf -a prog               # all of the above

5. Disassembly and source: objdump

bash
# Disassemble all code sections
objdump -d prog
objdump -d -M intel prog      # Intel syntax

# Disassemble + intermix source (needs -g at compile time)
objdump -d -S prog

# Disassemble specific symbol
objdump -d prog | awk '/^[0-9a-f]+ <main>:/,/^$/'

# All sections (including data)
objdump -D prog

# Header info
objdump -f prog
objdump -p prog               # private headers (including needed libs)

6. Binary hardening check

bash
# Check for PIE, RELRO, stack canary, NX
# Use checksec (install separately)
checksec --file=prog

# Manual checks:
readelf -h prog | grep Type           # ET_DYN = PIE, ET_EXEC = non-PIE
readelf -d prog | grep GNU_RELRO      # RELRO present
readelf -d prog | grep BIND_NOW       # full RELRO
readelf -s prog | grep __stack_chk    # stack protector
readelf -l prog | grep GNU_STACK      # NX bit (RW = no exec, RWE = exec stack)

7. Section size analysis (binary bloat)

bash
# Detailed section sizes
size --format=sysv prog | sort -k2 -nr | head -20

# Per-object contribution (with -Wl,--print-map or bloaty)
# Bloaty (install separately): https://github.com/google/bloaty
bloaty prog

# Check stripped vs not
file prog
strip --strip-all -o prog.stripped prog
ls -lh prog prog.stripped

8. Build ID

Build IDs uniquely identify a binary/library build, enabling debuginfod lookups.

bash
readelf -n prog | grep 'Build ID'
# or
file prog | grep BuildID

9. Common diagnosis flows

"undefined symbol at runtime"

bash
# Which library was expected to provide it?
nm -D libfoo.so | grep mysymbol
# Is the library in the runtime path?
ldd ./prog | grep libfoo
# Check LD_PRELOAD / LD_LIBRARY_PATH

"binary is too large"

bash
size --format=sysv prog | sort -k2 -nr | head
nm -S --defined-only prog | sort -k2 -nr | head -20
objdump -d prog | awk '/^[0-9a-f]+ </{fn=$2} /^[0-9a-f]/{count[fn]++} END{for(f in count) print count[f], f}' | sort -nr | head -20

For a quick reference, see references/cheatsheet.md.

Related skills

  • Use skills/binaries/linkers-lto for linker flags and LTO
  • Use skills/binaries/binutils for ar, strip, objcopy, addr2line
  • Use skills/debuggers/core-dumps for build ID and debuginfod usage

관련 작업

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