Number Systems

Decimal-to-Hexadecimal:
420.62510 =
420.62510 = 42010 + .62510
Division
420 16
26 16
1 16
Multiplication
.625 x 16

420.62510 = 1A4.A16
413510 = 102716
625.62510 = 271.A16

Quotient
26
1
0
Product
10.00

Remainder
4
LSB
10 (or A)
1
MSB
Carry-out
10 (or A)

Number Systems
Binary-Coded Hexadecimal (BCH):
2AC = 0010 1010 1100
1000 0011 1101 . 1110 = 83D.E

Complements
Data are stored in complement form to represent
negative numbers
Ones complements of 01001100
1111 1111
-0100 1100
1011 0011
Twos complements
1011 0011
+0000 0001
1011 0100

The 80x86 MICROPROCESSOR

Some buzz words

CISC Complex Instruction Set Computers
Refers to number and complexity of instructions
Improvements was: Multiply and Divide
The number of instruction increased from
45 on 4004 to:

246 on 8085
20,000 on 8086 and 8088
RISC Reduced Instruction Set Computer
Executes one instruction per clock

Newer RISC - Superscaler Technology

Execute more than one instruction per clock

...ha?

Inside The 8088/8086

Concepts important to the internal operation
of 8088/8086

Pipelining

Registers

Inside The 8088/8086pipelining

Pipelining

Two ways to make CPU process information faster:

Increase the working frequency technology dependent

Change the internal architecture of the CPU

Pipelining is to allow CPU to fetch and execute at the

same time

Inside The 8088/8086pipelining

Intel implemented the concept of pipelining by splitting
the internal structure of the 8088/8086 into two
sections that works simultaneously:

Execution Unit (EU) executes instructions previously fetched

Bus Interface Unit (BIU) accesses memory and peripherals

Inside The 8088/8086

AH
BH
CH
DH

AL
BL
CL
DL

 Registers

Overview

General purpose registers (8)

Operands for logical and arithmetic operations
Operands for address calculations
Memory pointers
Segment registers (6)
EFLAGS register
The instruction pointer register

The stack

Inside The 8088/8086registers

Registers
To store information temporarily

AX
16-bit register
AH
AL
8-bit reg. 8-bit reg.

Category

Bits

Register Names

General
Pointer
Index
Segment

16
8
16
16
16

Instruction
Flag

16
16

AX, BX, CX, DX

AH, AL, BH, BL, CH, CL, DH, DL
SP (stack pointer), BP (base pointer)
SI (source index), DI (destination index)
CS (code segment), DS (data segment)
SS (stack segment), ES (extra segment)
IP (instruction pointer)
FR (flag register)

Anatomy of a Register
Extended Register
Word Register
Bits 16-31

Bits 8-15

Bits 0-7

High Byte Low Byte

Register Register

General Registers
32 bit Registers

16 bit Registers

8 bit Registers

EAX

EBP

AX

BP

AH

AL

EBX

ESI

BX

SI

BH

BL

ECX

EDI

CX

DI

CH

CL

EDX

ESP

DX

SP

DH

DL

Bits 16-31

Bits 8-15

Bits 0-7

General Registers I
EAX Accumulator
accumulator for operands and results data
usually used to store the return value of a procedure

EBX Base Register

pointer to data in the DS segment

ECX Counter
counter for string and loop operations

EDX Data Register

I/O pointer

General Registers II
ESI Source Index
source pointer for string operations
typically a pointer to data in the segment pointed to
by the DS register

EDI Destination Index

destination pointer for string operations
typically a pointer to data/destination in the
segment pointed to by the ES register

General Registers III

EBP Base Pointer
pointer to data on the stack
points to the current stack frame of a procedure

ESP Stack Pointer

pointer to the top address of the stack
holds the stack pointer and as a general rule should
not be used for any other purpose

Segment Registers

CS Code Segment

contains the segment selector for the code segment

where the instructions being executed are stored

DS(ES,FS,GS) Data Segment

contains the segment selectors for the data segment
where data is stored

SS Stack Segment
contains the segment selector for the stack
segment, where the procedure stack is stored

The EFLAGS Register I

Carry Flag CF (bit 0)
Set if an arithmetic operation generates a carry

or a borrow out of the most-significant bit of the

result; cleared otherwise.

Parity Flag PF (bit 2)

Set if the least-significant byte of the result

contains an even number of 1 bits; cleared

otherwise.

Adjust Flag AF (bit 4)

Set if an arithmetic operation generates a carry
or a borrow out of bit 3 of the result; cleared
otherwise.

The EFLAGS Register II

Zero Flag ZF (bit 6)
Set if the result is zero; cleared otherwise

Sign Flag SF (bit 7)

Set equal to the most-significant bit of the result,

which is the sign bit of a signed integer

Overflow Flag OF (bit 11)

Set if the integer result is too large a positive

number or too small a negative number

(excluding the sign-bit) to fit in the destination
operand; cleared otherwise

Instruction Pointer
EIP
Instruction Pointer
Contains the offset within the code segment of
the next instruction to be executed
Cannot be accessed directly by software

The Stack

The stack starts in high memory and grows

toward low memory
ESP

EBP

Current
stack
frame
Callers
stack
frame

stack
growth

Intel Assembly

Intel Assembly
Goal: to gain a knowledge of Intel 32-bit assembly instructions
References:
M. Pietrek, Under the Hood: Just Enough Assembly Language to Get By
MSJ Article, February 1998 [Link]/msj
Part II, MSJ Article, June 1998 [Link]/msj
IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developers Manual,
Volume 1: Basic Architecture
[Link]/design/Pentium4/[Link]#manuals
Volume 2A: Instruction Set Reference A-M
[Link]/design/pentium4/[Link]#manuals
Volume 2B: Instruction Set Reference N-Z
[Link]/design/pentium4/[Link]#manuals

Assembly Programming
Machine Language
binary
hexadecimal
machine code or object code
Assembly Language
mnemonics
assembler
High-Level Language
Pascal, Basic, C
compiler

Assembly Language Programming

What Does It Mean to

Disassemble Code?
Source Code

Preprocessing
& Compiling

Assembly Code

Assembly

Executable Code

Object Code
Linking

DLLs

What Does It Mean to

Disassemble Code?
Source Code

Preprocessing
& Compiling

M
E
S
S
SA
I
D

Assembly Code

Y
L
B

Executable Code

Assembly

Object Code
Linking

DLLs

Why is Disassembly Useful in

Malware Analysis?
It is not always desirable to execute malware:
disassembly provides a static analysis.
Disassembly enables an analyst to investigate all
parts of the code, something that is not always
possible in dynamic analysis.
Using a disassembler and a debugger in combination
creates synergy.

32-bit Instructions
Instructions are represented in memory by a series
of opcode bytes.
A variance in instruction size means that
disassembly is position specific.
Most instructions take zero, one, or two arguments:
instruction destination, source
For example: add eax, ebx
is equivalent to the expression eax = eax + ebx

Rule #3:
If a value less than FFH is moved into a 16-bit register, the rest of the
bits are assumed to be all zeros.
MOV BX, 5

BX =0005
BH = 00, BL = 05

Program Segments
A segment is an area of memory that includes up to 64K bytes
Begins on an address evenly divisible by 16
8085 could address a max. of 64K bytes of physical memory
- it has only 16 pins for the address lines (216 = 64K)

8088/86 stayed compatible with 8085

- Range of 1MB of memory, it has 20 address pins (2 20 = 1 MB)
- Can handle 64KB of code, 64KB of data, 64KB of stack

A typical Assembly language program consist of three segments:

Code segments
Data segment
Stack segment

Program Segmentsa sample

Program Segments

Program Segments
Code segment
The 8086 fetches the instructions (opcodes and operands) from the code segments.

The 8086 address types:

Physical address
Offset address
Logical address

Physical address

20-bit address that is actually put on the address pins of 8086

Decoded by the memory interfacing circuitry
A range of 00000H to FFFFFH
It is the actual physical location in RAM or ROM within 1 MB mem. range

Offset address
A location within a 64KB segment range
A range of 0000H to FFFFH

Logical address
consist of a segment value and an offset address

Program Segmentsexample
Define the addresses for the 8086 when it fetches the instructions
(opcodes and operands) from the code segments.
Logical address:
Consist of a CS (code segment) and an IP (instruction pointer)
format is CS:IP

Offset address
IP contains the offset address

Physical address
generated by shifting the CS left one hex digit and then adding it to the
IP
the resulting 20-bit address is called the physical address

give me some numbersok

Program Segmentsexample
Suppose we have:
CS
IP

2500
95F3

Logical address:
Consist of a CS (code segment) and an IP (instruction pointer)
format is CS:IP
2500:95F3H

Offset address
IP contains the offset address which is

95F3H

Physical address
generated by shifting the CS left one hex digit and then adding it to the
IP
25000 + 95F3 = 2E5F3H

Program Segments
Data segment

Data segment refers to an area of memory set aside for data

Format DS:BX or DI or SI
example:
DS:0200 = 25
DS:0201 = 12
DS:0202 = 15
DS:0203 = 1F
DS:0204 = 2B

Program Segments
Data segment

Example:
Add 5 bytes of data: 25H, 12H, 15H, 1FH, 2BH
Not using data segment
MOV
ADD
ADD
ADD
ADD
ADD

AL,00H
AL,25H
AL,12H
AL,15H
AL,1FH
AL,2BH

;clear AL
;add 25H to AL

Program Segments
Data segment

Example:
Add 5 bytes of data: 25H, 12H, 15H, 1FH, 2BH

using data segment with a constant offset

Data location in memory:
DS:0200 = 25
DS:0201 = 12
DS:0202 = 15
DS:0203 = 1F
DS:0204 = 2B

Program:
MOV
ADD
ADD
ADD
ADD
ADD

AL,0
AL,[0200]
AL,[0201]
AL,[0202]
AL,[0203]
AL,[0204]

Program Segments
Data segment

Example:
Add 5 bytes of data: 25H, 12H, 15H, 1FH, 2BH

using data segment with an offset register

Program:
MOV
MOV
ADD
INC
ADD
INC
ADD
INC
ADD

AL,0
BX,0200H
AL,[BX]
BX
AL,[BX]
BX
AL,[BX]
BX
AL,[BX]

;same as ADD BX,1

Endian conversion
Little endian conversion:
In the case of 16-bit data, the low byte goes to the low
memory location and the high byte goes to the high memory
address. (Intel, Digital VAX)

Big endian conversion:

The high byte goes to low address. (Motorola)
Example:
Suppose DS:6826 = 48, DS:6827 = 22,
Show the contents of register BX in the instruction MOV BX,[6826]
Little endian conversion: BL = 48H, and BH = 22H

Program Segments
Stack segment

Stack
A section of RAM memory used by the CPU to store
information temporarily.
Registers: SS (Stack Segment) and SP (stack Pointer)
Operations: PUSH and POP
PUSH the storing of a CPU register in the stack
POP loading the contents of the stack back into the CPU

Logical and offset address format: SS:SP

Flag Register
Flag Register (status register)
16-bit register
Conditional flags: CF, PF, AF, ZF, SF, OF
Control flags: TF, IF, DF

ZF

Flag Register and ADD instruction

Flag Register that may be affected
Conditional flags: CF, PF, AF, ZF, SF, OF

Flow Control I
JMP location
Transfers program control to a different point in the
instruction stream without recording return
information.
jmp eax
jmp 0x00934EE4

Flow Control II
CMP value, value / Jcc location
The compare instruction compares two values, setting or
clearing a variety of flags (e.g., ZF, SF, OF). Various
conditional jump instructions use flags to branch
accordingly.

cmp eax, 4
je 40320020

cmp [ebp+10h], eax

jne 40DC0020

Flow Control III

TEST value, value / Jcc location
The test instruction does a logical AND of the two
values. This sets the SF, ZF, and PF flags. Various
conditional jump instructions use these flags to branch.
test
jnz

eax, eax
40DA0020

test
jz

edx, 0056FCE2
56DC0F20

Looping using zero flag

The zero flag is set (ZF=1), when the counter becomes zero
(CX=0)
Example: add 5 bytes of data
MOV
MOV
MOV
ADD_LP:
INC
DEC
JNZ

CX,05 ;CX holds the loop count

BX,0200H
;BX holds the offset data address
AL,00 ;initialize AL
ADD AL,[BX] ;add the next byte to AL
BX
;increment the data pointer
CX
;decrement the loop counter
ADD_LP
;jump to next iteration if counter ;not zero

Addressing Modes Accessing operands (data) in various ways

;move contents of DS:2400H into DL

;move contents of DS:SI into CL

;move contents of AH into DS:DI

;moves contents of AX into memory

;locations DS:SI and DS:SI +1

;move DS:BX+10 & DS:BX+10+1

;into CX. PA= DS(sl) +BX+10
;PA = SS (sl) + BP + 5

;PA = DS (sl) + SI + 5
;PA = DS (sl) + DI + 20

;PA=DS(sl)+BX+DI +8
;PA=SS(sl)+BP+SI +29

Assembly Language
Programming

Assembly Programming
Assembly Language instruction consist of four fields
[label:]

mnemonic [operands] [;comment]

Labels
See rules
mnemonic, operands
MOV AX, 6764
comment
; this is a sample program

Model Definition
MODEL directive selects the size of the memory model
MODEL MEDIUM
Data must fit into 64KB
Code can exceed 64KB
MODEL COMPACT
Data can exceed 64KB
Code cannot exceed 64KB
MODEL LARGE
Data can exceed 64KB (but no single set of data should exceed 64KB)
Code can exceed 64KB
MODEL HUGE
Data can exceed 64KB (data items i.e. arrays can exceed 64KB)
Code can exceed 64KB
MODEL TINY
Data must fit into 64KB
Code must fit into 64KB
Used with COM files

Segments
Segment definition:
The 80x86 CPU has four segment registers: CS, DS, SS, ES
Segments of a program:
.STACK
; marks the beginning of the stack segment
example:
.STACK 64

.DATA

;reserves 64B of memory for the stack

; marks the beginning of the data segment

example:
.DATA1 DB
52H
;DB directive allocates memory in byte-size chunks

Segments
.CODE
; marks the beginning of the code segment
- starts with PROC (procedures) directive
- the PROC directive may have the option FAR or NEAR
- ends by ENDP directives

Assemble, Link, and Run Program

STEP

INPUT

PROGRAM

OUTPUT

1.

Edit the program

keyboard

editor

[Link]

2.

Assemble the program

[Link]

MASM or TASM

[Link]
[Link]
[Link]

3.

Link the program

[Link]

LINK or TLINK

[Link]

[Link]

Assemble, Link, Run Files

.asm source file
.obj machine language file
.lst list file
- it lists all the Opcodes, Offset addresses, and
errors that
MASM detected
.crf cross-reference file
- an alphabetical list of all symbols and labels
used in the
program as well as the program line numbers in which they
are referenced
.map map file
- to see the location and number of bytes used

PAGE and TITLE directives

PAGE [lines],[columns]
To tell the printer how the list should be printed
Default mode is 66 lines per page with 80 characters per line
The range for number of lines is 10 to 255 and for columns
is 60 to 132
TITLE
Print the title of the program
The text after the TITLE pseudo-instruction cannot be more
than 60 ASCII characters

Control Transfer Instructions

NEAR When control transferred to a memory location
within the current code segment
FAR When control is transferred outside the current code
segment
CS:IS This register always points to the address of the next
instruction to be executed.
In a NEAR jump, IP is updated, CS remains the same
In a FAR jump, both CS and IP are updated

Control Transfer Instructions

Conditional Jumps See Table 2-1
Short Jump
All conditional jumps are short jump
The address of the target must be within 128 to +127 bytes
of the IP
The conditional jump is a two-byte instruction:
One byte is the opcode of the J condition
The 2nd byte is between 00 and FF
256 possible addresses:
forward jump to +127
backward jump to 128

Control Transfer Instructions

forward jump to +127:
calculation of the target address:
by adding the IP of the following instruction to the operand (see
page 65)

backward jump to 128

the 2nd byte is the 2s complement of the displacement value
Calculation of the target address:
the 2nd byte is added to the IP of the instruction after the jump (see
Program 2-1, and page 65)

Control Transfer Instructions

Unconditional Jumps JMP label - When control is transferred
unconditionally to the target location label
SHORT JUMP JMP SHORT label
NEAR JUMP JMP label
FAR JUMP JMP FAR PTR label

CALL statements A control transfer instruction used to call a

procedure
In NEAR call IP is saved on the stack (see figure 2-5, page 67)
In FAR call both CS and IP are saved on the stack
RET the last instruction of the called subroutine

Control Transfer Instructions

Assembly Language Subroutine
one main program and many subroutines
main program is the entry point from DOS and is FAR
subroutines called within the main program
can be FAR or NEAR
if after PROC nothing is mentioned, it defaults to NEAR

Data Types and Data Definition

80x86 data types
8-bit or 16-bit
Positive or negative
example1:
number 510(1012) will be 0000 01010
example2:
number 51410(10 0000 00102) will be 0000 0010 0000 0010

Data Types and Data Definition

Assembler data directives
ORG (origin) to indicate the beginning of the offset address
example:
ORG

0010H

DB (define byte) allocation of memory in byte-sized chunks

example:
DATA1
DATA2
DATA3
DATA4
DATA5
DATA6
DATA7

DB
DB
DB
DB
DB
DB
DB

25
10001001B
12H
2591
?
Hello
O Hi

;decimal
;binary
;hex
;ASCII numbers
;set aside a byte
;ASCII characters
;ASCII characters

Data Types and Data Definition

Assembler data directives
DUP (duplicate) to duplicate a given number of characters
example:
DATA1 DB 0FFH, 0FFH, 0FFH, 0FFH
Can be replaced with:
DATA2 DB
4 DUP(0FFH)

;fill 4 bytes with FF

DATA3

DB

30 DUP(?)

;set aside 30 bytes

DATA4

DB

5 DUP (2 DUP (99))

;fill 10 bytes with 99

;fill 4 bytes with FF

Data Types and Data Definition

Assembler data directives
DW (define word) allocate memory 2 bytes (one word) at a time
example:
DATA1
DATA2
DATA3
DATA4
DATA5

DW
DW
DW
DW
DW

342
01010001001B
123FH
9,6,0CH, 0111B,Hi
8 DUP (?)

;decimal
;binary
;hex
;Data numbers
;set aside 8 words

EQU (equate) define a constant without occupying a memory location

example:
COUNT

EQU

25

;COUNT can be used in many places in the program

Data Types and Data Definition

Assembler data directives
DD (define doubleword) allocate memory 4 bytes (2 words) at a time
example:
DATA1
DATA2
DATA3
DATA4

DD
DD
DD
DD

1023

;decimal
01010001001001110110B ;binary
7A3D43F1H
;hex
54H, 65432H,65533
;Data numbers

DQ (define quadwordequate) allocate memory 8 bytes (4 words) at a

time

example:
DATA1
DATA2
DATA3

DQ
DQ
DQ

6723F9H
Hi
?

;hex
;ASCII characters
;nothing

Data Types and Data Definition

Assembler data directives
DT (define ten bytes) allocates packed BCD numbers (used in
multibyte addition of BCD numbers)

example:
DATA1
DATA2
DATA3

DT
DT
DT

123456789123
?

76543d

;BCD
;nothing
;assembler will convert decimal
number to hex and store it

Full Segment Definition

Simple segment definition refers to newer definition
Microsoft MASM 5.0 or higher
Borlands TASM ver. 1

Full segment definition refers to older definition

SEGMENT directive indicate to the assembler the beginning of a segment
END directive indicate to the assembler the beginning of a segment
Example:
label
label

SEGMENT
; statements
ENDS

[options]

EXE vs. COM

COM files
Smaller in size (max of 64KB)
Does not have header block
EXE files
Unlimited size
Do have header block (512 bytes of memory, contains
information such as size, address location in memory, stack
address)

Converting from EXE to COM

Procedure for conversion to COM from EXE
1. Change the source file to the COM format
2. Assemble
3. Link
4. Use utility program EXE2BIN that comes with DOS
C:>EXE2BIN program1, [Link]

Arithmetic and Logic

Instructions and Programs

Use to mask certain bits, test for zero

Use to test for zero
Use to clear the contents of a register
also to see if two register have the same value

Interrupt Programming with C

Using C high-level assembly
C programmers do need need to have detailed
knowledge of 80x86 assembly
C programmers write programs using:
DOS function calls INT 21H
BIOS interrupts

Compilers provide functions:

int86
intdos

(calling any of the PCs interrupts)

(only for INT 21H DOS function calls)

108

Interrupt Programming with C

Programming BIOS interrupts with C/C++
Set registers to desired values
Call int86
Upon return from int86, the 80x86 registers can be
accesses

To access the 80x86 registers use union of the

REGS structure already defined by C compiler
union
REGS regin,regout;
Registers for access are 16-bit (x) or 8-bit (h) format
109

Interrupt Programming with C

Example:
/* C language

Assembly language */

union REGS region,regout;

[Link]=0x25;
[Link]=0x4567;
[Link]=0x1290;
int86(interrupt#,&regin,&regout);

/* mov ah,25h ;AH=25H */

/* mov dx,4567h ;DH=4567H */
/* mov si, 1290h ;SI=1290H */
/* int #
*/

110

Interrupt Programming with C

Programming INT 21H DOS function calls with C/C++
intdos used for DOS function calls
intdos(&regin,&regout);

/* to be used for INT 21H only */

111

Signed Numbers, Strings, Tables

Using MASM
Developed by Microsoft
Used to translate 8086 assembly language
into machine language
3 steps:

Prepare .ASM file using a text editor

Create .OBJ file using MASM
Create .EXE file using LINK
Once you have the .EXE file, debug can be used
to test and run the program

Disassembly Using IDA Pro

IDA Pro Disassembler

Interactive disassembler commercially
developed by Datarescue
Supports over 30 families of processors
(Intel x86, SPARC)
Supports many file formats (PE, ELF)
Provides powerful SDK

Using IDA Pro

Loading a file
General settings
Views
Navigating through the code
Adding analysis content
Searches (binary, text)
Patching & scripting
Exiting and saving

Tools IDA Pro Demonstration