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Main Authors: Zakaria, Farid, Chen, Zheyuan, Quinn, Andrew, Scogland, Thomas R. W.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03883
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author Zakaria, Farid
Chen, Zheyuan
Quinn, Andrew
Scogland, Thomas R. W.
author_facet Zakaria, Farid
Chen, Zheyuan
Quinn, Andrew
Scogland, Thomas R. W.
contents The exploration and understanding of Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) objects underpin various critical activities in computer systems, from debugging to reverse engineering. Traditional UNIX tooling like readelf, nm, and objdump have served the community reliably over the years. However, as the complexity and scale of software projects has grown, there arises a need for more intuitive, flexible, and powerful methods to investigate ELF objects. In this paper, we introduce sqlelf, an innovative tool that empowers users to probe ELF objects through the expressive power of SQL. By modeling ELF objects as relational databases, sqlelf offers the following advantages over conventional methods. Our evaluations demonstrate that sqlelf not only provides more nuanced and comprehensive insights into ELF objects but also significantly reduces the effort and time traditionally required for ELF exploration tasks
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_03883
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle sqlelf: a SQL-centric Approach to ELF Analysis
Zakaria, Farid
Chen, Zheyuan
Quinn, Andrew
Scogland, Thomas R. W.
Software Engineering
Databases
Operating Systems
The exploration and understanding of Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) objects underpin various critical activities in computer systems, from debugging to reverse engineering. Traditional UNIX tooling like readelf, nm, and objdump have served the community reliably over the years. However, as the complexity and scale of software projects has grown, there arises a need for more intuitive, flexible, and powerful methods to investigate ELF objects. In this paper, we introduce sqlelf, an innovative tool that empowers users to probe ELF objects through the expressive power of SQL. By modeling ELF objects as relational databases, sqlelf offers the following advantages over conventional methods. Our evaluations demonstrate that sqlelf not only provides more nuanced and comprehensive insights into ELF objects but also significantly reduces the effort and time traditionally required for ELF exploration tasks
title sqlelf: a SQL-centric Approach to ELF Analysis
topic Software Engineering
Databases
Operating Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.03883