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Debugging, Disassembly & Reversing in Linux for x64 Architecture

Local Variables

Explore how local variables operate within function stack frames by using GDB to debug and disassemble simple C programs. Understand function prologues and epilogues, inspect assembly output, and see how compiler optimizations affect local variable code. Gain practical experience with breakpoints and memory analysis.

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Local variables project

Let’s learn more about local variables with a project.

Source code

The source code of the local variables project is given below:

C++
int main()
{
	int a, b;
	a = 1;
	b = 1;
	b = b + a;
	++a;
	b = b * a;
	return 0;
}

Compilation and execution of code

We compile the file and load the executable into GDB:

gcc LocalVariables.cpp -o LocalVariables
gdb ./LocalVariables

The output after loading the executable file:

Then we put a breakpoint to the main:

break main

The breakpoint ...