Explore ELF objects through the power of SQL
A tool that utilizes SQLite's virtual table functionality to allow you to explore Linux ELF objects through SQL.
Traditionally exploring an ELF file was limited to tools such as objdump or readelf. While these tools are full featured in their parsing capability, the output format and ability to ask exploratory questions is limited.
SQL is the lingua franca for asking questions in a declarative manner.
Let's enhance our ability to introspect binaries!
---
title: ELF Schema
---
erDiagram
ELF_HEADERS ||--o{ ELF_SECTIONS : contains
ELF_HEADERS {
string path
int type
int version
int machine
int entry
}
ELF_SECTIONS {
string path
string name
int offset
int size
int type
blob content
}
ELF_HEADERS ||--o{ ELF_SYMBOLS : contains
ELF_SECTIONS ||--o{ ELF_SYMBOLS : defined
ELF_SYMBOLS {
string path
string name
string demangled_name
bool imported
bool exported
int section
int size
}
ELF_HEADERS ||--o{ ELF_DYNAMIC_ENTRIES : defined
ELF_DYNAMIC_ENTRIES {
string path
string tag
string value
}
ELF_SECTIONS ||--o{ ELF_INSTRUCTIONS : contains
ELF_INSTRUCTIONS {
string path
string section
string mnemonic
string address
string operands
}
ELF_SECTIONS ||--o{ ELF_STRINGS : contains
ELF_STRINGS {
string path
string section
string value
}
ELF_HEADERS ||--o{ ELF_VERSION_REQUIREMENTS : contains
ELF_VERSION_REQUIREMENTS {
string path
string file
string name
}
ELF_HEADERS ||--o{ ELF_VERSION_DEFINITIONS : contains
ELF_VERSION_DEFINITIONS {
string path
string name
int flags
}
❯ pip install sqlelf
❯ sqlelf /usr/bin/python3 -- \
--sql "select mnemonic, COUNT(*) from elf_instructions GROUP BY mnemonic ORDER BY 2 DESC LIMIT 3"
mov|223497
call|56209
jmp|48213❯ sqlelf --help
usage: sqlelf [-h] FILE [FILE ...]
Analyze ELF files with the power of SQL
positional arguments:
FILE The ELF file to analyze
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-s SQL, --sql SQL Potential SQL to execute. Omitting this enters the REPL.
--recursive, --no-recursive
Load all shared libraries needed by each file using lddNote: You may provide directories for FILE. Avoid giving too many binaries though since they must all be parsed at startup.
You simply have to fire up sqlelf and give it a list of binaries or directories and start exploring ELF via SQL.
Simple demo showing a simple SELECT :
❯ sqlelf /usr/bin/ruby --sql "select * from elf_headers"
/usr/bin/ruby|DYNAMIC|x86_64|CURRENT|4400❯ sqlelf /usr/bin/ruby /bin/ls
SQLite version 3.40.1 (APSW 3.40.0.0)
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> .header ON
sqlite> select * from elf_headers;
path|type|machine|version|entry
/usr/bin/ruby|3|62|1|4400
/bin/ls|3|62|1|25040A more intricate demo showing an INNER JOIN, WHERE and GROUP BY across two tables which each represent different portions of the ELF format.
SQLite version 3.40.1 (APSW 3.40.0.0)
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> .header ON
sqlite> SELECT elf_headers.path, COUNT(*) as num_sections
..> FROM elf_headers
..> INNER JOIN elf_sections ON elf_headers.path = elf_sections.path
..> WHERE elf_headers.type = 3
..> GROUP BY elf_headers.path;
path|num_sections
/bin/ls|31
/usr/bin/pnmarith|27
/usr/bin/ruby|28You can provide multiple SQL statements to the CLI. This is useful if you want to invoke many of the special dot commands. You can use .help to see the list of possible commands or refer to the apsw shell documentation.
For instance, to have sqelf emit JSON you can do the following:
❯ sqlelf /usr/bin/ruby --sql ".mode json" --sql "select path,name from elf_sections LIMIT 3;"
{ "path": "\/usr\/bin\/ruby", "name": ""},
{ "path": "\/usr\/bin\/ruby", "name": ".interp"},
{ "path": "\/usr\/bin\/ruby", "name": ".note.gnu.property"},sqlelf will store the data from the ELF file into in-memory SQLite database. This allows you to run multiple queries against the same file(s) without having to reparse them and is much more efficient than iterating the ELF structures. This comes at the cost of startup time.
You can however dump the sqlite database to a file on disk and then load it back up later. This is useful if you want to run many queries against the same file(s) and don't want to pay the startup cost each time.
❯ sqlelf /nix/store/gjr9ylm023rl9di484g1wxcd1jp84xxv-nix-2.8.1/bin/nix \
--sql ".dump /tmp/nix.sqlite"
❯ file /tmp/nix-backup.sqlite
/tmp/nix-backup.sqlite: SQLite 3.x database, last written using SQLite version 3043001, writer version 2,
read version 2, file counter 3, database pages 14069, cookie 0x2, schema 4, UTF-8, version-valid-for 3List all symbol resolutions (match import & export)
❯ sqlelf /usr/bin/ruby --sql "SELECT caller.path as 'caller.path',
callee.path as 'calee.path',
caller.name,
caller.demangled_name
FROM ELF_SYMBOLS caller
INNER JOIN ELF_SYMBOLS callee
ON
caller.name = callee.name AND
caller.path != callee.path AND
caller.imported = TRUE AND
callee.exported = TRUE
LIMIT 25;"
┌──────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
│ caller.path │ calee.path │ name │ demangled_name │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ ruby_run_node │ ruby_run_node │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ ruby_init │ ruby_init │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ ruby_options │ ruby_options │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ ruby_sysinit │ ruby_sysinit │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ __stack_chk_fail │ __stack_chk_fail │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ ruby_init_stack │ ruby_init_stack │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ setlocale │ setlocale │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ __libc_start_main │ __libc_start_main │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ __libc_start_main │ __libc_start_main │
│ /usr/bin/ruby │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ __cxa_finalize │ __cxa_finalize │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ initgroups │ initgroups │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 │ log10 │ log10 │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ chmod │ chmod │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgmp.so.10 │ __gmpz_mul │ __gmpz_mul │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 │ lgamma_r │ lgamma_r │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ symlink │ symlink │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ mprotect │ mprotect │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ pipe2 │ pipe2 │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ seteuid │ seteuid │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ chdir │ chdir │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ fileno │ fileno │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ dup2 │ dup2 │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ pthread_cond_destroy │ pthread_cond_destroy │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 │ pthread_cond_destroy │ pthread_cond_destroy │
│ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libruby-3.1.so.3.1 │ /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 │ atan2 │ atan2 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘Find symbols that are exported by more than one library
❯ sqlelf ./examples/shadowed-symbols/exe --recursive --sql "
SELECT name, version, count(*) as symbol_count, GROUP_CONCAT(path, ':') as libraries
FROM elf_symbols
WHERE exported = TRUE
GROUP BY name, version
HAVING count(*) >= 2;"
┌──────┬────────┬───────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ name │ versio │ symbol_co │ libraries │
│ │ n │ unt │ │
├──────┼────────┼───────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ foo │ NULL │ 2 │ /usr/local/google/home/fmzakari/code/github.com/fzakaria/sqlelf/examples/shadowed- │
│ │ │ │ symbols/x/libx.so:/usr/local/google/home/fmzakari/code/github.com/fzakaria/sqlelf/examples/shadowed-symbols/x/libx2.so │
└──────┴────────┴───────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘List contained symbols, i.e. a symbol fully within the bounds of another
sqlelf ./examples/nested-symbols/exe --sql "
SELECT outer_symbol.path,
outer_symbol.name AS outer_symbol_name,
inner_symbol.name AS inner_symbol_name
FROM
elf_symbols AS outer_symbol,
elf_symbols AS inner_symbol
WHERE
inner_symbol.section = '.text' AND
outer_symbol.section = '.text' AND
inner_symbol.path = outer_symbol.path AND
inner_symbol.value > outer_symbol.value AND
(inner_symbol.value + inner_symbol.size) < (outer_symbol.value + outer_symbol.size) AND
inner_symbol.name != outer_symbol.name LIMIT 5;"
┌──────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────┐
│ path │ outer_symbol_name │ inner_symbol_name │
│ ./examples/nested-symbols/nested │ outer_function │ inner_symbol │
└──────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────┘Determine Python extension version
You will need to edit the SQL below to have the module name.
For instance, the below assumes the module name is extension from the
pypa/python-manylinux-demo.
❯ sqlelf pypa/python-manylinux-demo/build/lib.linux-x86_64-cpython-311/pymanylinuxdemo/extension.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so \
> --sql "SELECT
CASE name
WHEN 'initextension' THEN 2
WHEN 'PyInit_extension' THEN 3
WHEN '_cffi_pypyinit_extension' THEN 2
ELSE -1
END AS python_version
FROM elf_symbols
WHERE name IN ('initextension', 'PyInit_extension', '_cffi_pypyinit_extension')
AND exported = TRUE
AND type = 'FUNC'
LIMIT 1
"
┌────────────────┐
│ python_version │
│ 3 │
└────────────────┘Determine the NEEDED entries for a program
This may be improved in the future but for now there is a little knowledge of the polymorphic nature of the dynamic entries needed.
❯ sqlelf extension.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so \
> --sql "SELECT elf_strings.path, elf_strings.value
FROM elf_dynamic_entries
INNER JOIN elf_strings ON elf_dynamic_entries.value = elf_strings.offset
WHERE elf_dynamic_entries.tag = 'NEEDED'"
┌───────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┐
│ path │ value │
│ extension.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so │ libcblas.so.3 │
│ extension.cpython-311-x86_64-linux-gnu.so │ libc.so.6 │
└───────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┘Determine the RPATH/RUNPATH entries for a program
This may be improved in the future but for now there is a little knowledge of the polymorphic nature of the dynamic entries needed.
The below uses a file built with NixOS as they all have RUNPATH set.
❯ sqlelf /nix/store/gjr9ylm023rl9di484g1wxcd1jp84xxv-nix-2.8.1/bin/nix \
--sql "SELECT elf_strings.path, elf_strings.value
FROM elf_dynamic_entries
INNER JOIN elf_strings ON elf_dynamic_entries.value = elf_strings.offset
WHERE elf_dynamic_entries.tag = 'RUNPATH';"
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ path │ value │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /nix/store/gjr9ylm023rl9di484g1wxcd1jp84xxv- │ /nix/store/gjr9ylm023rl9di484g1wxcd1jp84xxv- │
│ nix-2.8.1/bin/nix │ nix-2.8.1/lib:/nix/store/pkxyfwarcq081rybpbnprjmnkiy1cz6g-libsodium-1.0.18/lib:/nix/store/r6mrf9pz4dpax6rcszcmbyrpsk8j6saz- │
│ │ editline-1.17.1/lib:/nix/store/ppm63lvkyfa58sgcnr2ddzh14dy1k9fn-boehm-gc-8.0.6/lib:/nix/store/sgw2i15l01rwxzj62745h30bsjmh7wc1-lowdown-0.11.1- │
│ │ lib/lib:/nix/store/bvy2z17rzlvkx2sj7fy99ajm853yv898-glibc-2.34-210/lib:/nix/store/gka59hya7l7qp26s0rydcgq8hj0d7v7k-gcc-11.3.0-lib/lib │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘A recursive query can further be used to split the row into multiple rows.
❯ sqlelf /nix/store/gjr9ylm023rl9di484g1wxcd1jp84xxv-nix-2.8.1/bin/nix \
--sql "WITH split(rpath, str) AS (
SELECT '', elf_strings.value||':' as rpath
FROM elf_dynamic_entries
INNER JOIN elf_strings ON elf_dynamic_entries.value = elf_strings.offset
WHERE elf_dynamic_entries.tag = 'RUNPATH'
UNION ALL SELECT
substr(str, 0, instr(str, ':')),
substr(str, instr(str, ':')+1)
FROM split WHERE str!=''
) SELECT rpath FROM split WHERE rpath!='';"
WARNING:root:SQLITE_LOG: automatic index on elf_strings(offset) (284) SQLITE_WARNING SQLITE_WARNING_AUTOINDEX
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ rpath │
│ /nix/store/gjr9ylm023rl9di484g1wxcd1jp84xxv-nix-2.8.1/lib │
│ /nix/store/pkxyfwarcq081rybpbnprjmnkiy1cz6g-libsodium-1.0.18/lib │
│ /nix/store/r6mrf9pz4dpax6rcszcmbyrpsk8j6saz-editline-1.17.1/lib │
│ /nix/store/ppm63lvkyfa58sgcnr2ddzh14dy1k9fn-boehm-gc-8.0.6/lib │
│ /nix/store/sgw2i15l01rwxzj62745h30bsjmh7wc1-lowdown-0.11.1-lib/lib │
│ /nix/store/bvy2z17rzlvkx2sj7fy99ajm853yv898-glibc-2.34-210/lib │
│ /nix/store/gka59hya7l7qp26s0rydcgq8hj0d7v7k-gcc-11.3.0-lib/lib │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Find the Top10 largest functions by source lines
The below uses Debuginfod to fetch the DWARF file for a given binary automatically.
❯ sqlelf $(DEBUGINFOD_URLS="https://debuginfod.debian.net" debuginfod-find debuginfo /bin/bash) --sql \
"SELECT DDL.filename, DIES.name, COUNT(DISTINCT DDL.line) AS line_count
FROM dwarf_dies AS DIES
JOIN dwarf_debug_lines DDL ON DIES.cu_offset = DDL.cu_offset
WHERE DDL.address >= DIES.low_pc AND DDL.address < DIES.high_pc
AND tag = 'DW_TAG_subprogram'
AND name IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY DDL.filename, DIES.name
ORDER BY line_count DESC
LIMIT 10;"
┌────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┬────────────┐
│ filename │ name │ line_count │
│ ./build-bash/subst.c │ param_expand │ 665 │
│ read.c │ read_builtin │ 500 │
│ ./build-bash/subst.c │ expand_word_internal │ 461 │
│ ./build-bash/shell.c │ main │ 439 │
│ ./build-bash/lib/readline/display.c │ update_line │ 408 │
│ ./build-bash/lib/readline/histexpand.c │ history_expand │ 401 │
│ ./build-bash/y.tab.c │ yyparse │ 395 │
│ declare.c │ declare_internal │ 378 │
│ ./build-bash/variables.c │ initialize_shell_variables │ 345 │
│ ./build-bash/lib/readline/display.c │ rl_redisplay │ 342 │
└────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┴────────────┘
Find the largest functions by binary size
❯ sqlelf examples/nested-symbols/exe --sql \
"SELECT name AS function_name,
(high_pc - low_pc) AS function_size
FROM dwarf_dies
WHERE tag = 'DW_TAG_subprogram'
ORDER BY function_size DESC
LIMIT 10;"
┌────────────────┬───────────────┐
│ function_name │ function_size │
│ outer_function │ 38 │
│ main │ 21 │
└────────────────┴───────────────┘Print the instructions associated with a symbol
❯ sqlelf /bin/bash --sql \
"SELECT EI.address, ES.name, mnemonic, operands, EI.size
FROM ELF_SYMBOLS ES
JOIN ELF_INSTRUCTIONS EI
ON EI.PATH = ES.PATH
WHERE
EI.address >= ES.value
AND EI.address <= ES.value + ES.size
AND ES.name = 'read_builtin'
ORDER BY EI.address ASC LIMIT 10;"
┌─────────┬──────────────┬──────────┬──────────────────────┬──────┐
│ address │ name │ mnemonic │ operands │ size │
│ 689120 │ read_builtin │ push │ r15 │ 2 │
│ 689122 │ read_builtin │ push │ r14 │ 2 │
│ 689124 │ read_builtin │ push │ r13 │ 2 │
│ 689126 │ read_builtin │ xor │ r13d, r13d │ 3 │
│ 689129 │ read_builtin │ push │ r12 │ 2 │
│ 689131 │ read_builtin │ xor │ r12d, r12d │ 3 │
│ 689134 │ read_builtin │ push │ rbp │ 1 │
│ 689135 │ read_builtin │ lea │ rbp, [rip + 0x5ddf3] │ 7 │
│ 689142 │ read_builtin │ push │ rbx │ 1 │
│ 689143 │ read_builtin │ lea │ rbx, [rip + 0x5de46] │ 7 │
└─────────┴──────────────┴──────────┴──────────────────────┴──────┘Top 10 libraries that are linked to
This query assumes you have created a sqlite database from a complete distribution using docker2sqlef.
❯ sqlite3 debian-stable-20230612.sqlite <<EOF
heredoc> SELECT library_basename, COUNT(*) as dependency_count
FROM (
SELECT DISTINCT binary_path, library_basename
FROM (
SELECT REPLACE(imported_symbols.path,
RTRIM(imported_symbols.path,
REPLACE(imported_symbols.path, '/', '')
),
'') AS binary_path,
imported_symbols.name AS symbol_name,
REPLACE(exported_symbols.path,
RTRIM(exported_symbols.path,
REPLACE(exported_symbols.path, '/', '')
),
'') AS library_basename
FROM elf_symbols AS imported_symbols
INNER JOIN elf_symbols AS exported_symbols
ON imported_symbols.name = exported_symbols.name
-- Join with NEEDED entries
INNER JOIN elf_dynamic_entries AS needed
ON imported_symbols.path = needed.path
JOIN elf_strings
ON needed.value = elf_strings.offset
AND needed.tag = 'NEEDED'
WHERE imported_symbols.imported = 1
AND exported_symbols.exported = 1
AND elf_strings.value = library_basename
)
)
GROUP BY library_basename
ORDER BY dependency_count DESC
LIMIT 10;
heredoc> EOF
library_basename dependency_count
-------------------- ----------------
libc.so.6 775
libselinux.so.1 61
libpam.so.0 57
libaudit.so.1 39
ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 35
libgcc_s.so.1 31
libstdc++.so.6 29
libblkid.so.1 28
libapt-pkg.so.6.0 27
libcom_err.so.2 25Top 10 libraries based on number of symbols that are used
This query assumes you have created a sqlite database from a complete distribution using docker2sqlef.
❯ sqlite3 debian-stable-20230612.sqlite <<EOF
heredoc> SELECT library_basename, COUNT(*) as import_count
FROM (
SELECT REPLACE(imported_symbols.path,
RTRIM(imported_symbols.path,
REPLACE(imported_symbols.path, '/', '')
),
'') AS binary_path,
imported_symbols.name AS symbol_name,
REPLACE(exported_symbols.path,
RTRIM(exported_symbols.path,
REPLACE(exported_symbols.path, '/', '')
),
'') AS library_basename
FROM elf_symbols AS imported_symbols
INNER JOIN elf_symbols AS exported_symbols
ON imported_symbols.name = exported_symbols.name
-- Join with NEEDED entries
INNER JOIN elf_dynamic_entries AS needed
ON imported_symbols.path = needed.path
JOIN elf_strings
ON needed.value = elf_strings.offset
AND needed.tag = 'NEEDED'
WHERE imported_symbols.imported = 1
AND exported_symbols.exported = 1
AND elf_strings.value = library_basename
)
GROUP BY library_basename
ORDER BY import_count DESC
LIMIT 10;
heredoc> EOF
library_basename import_count
----------------- ------------
libc.so.6 353023
libext2fs.so.2 6358
libstdc++.so.6 3381
libapt-pkg.so.6.0 3363
libnettle.so.8 896
libselinux.so.1 785
libtinfo.so.6 723
libblkid.so.1 705
libgmp.so.10 592
libpam.so.0 428You may want to install the package in editable mode as well to make development easier.
> python3 -m venv venv
> source venv/bin/activate
> pip install --editable ".[dev]"A helping Makefile is provided to run all the linters and formatters.
> make lint
> make fmt