Debug

In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll walk through the entire process of building a custom Linux kernel, creating a minimal filesystem using Busybox, running it on QEMU, and debugging the kernel. Finally, we’ll wrap up by learning how to compile and add custom Linux kernel modules to enhance our kernel. I’m using a Linux system for this demonstration, specifically Ubuntu 16.04.7 LTS with kernel version 4.15.0-142-generic. However, the steps should be similar for other Linux distributions.

After analyzing the binaries using tools like objdump, strace, and nm as explored in our Linux Binary Analysis series, it’s time to delve into debugging with GDB. What is GDB? GDB is a command-line debugger that allows developers to inspect and manipulate the execution of programs. It provides a range of features for analyzing the state of a program, examining variables, setting breakpoints, and stepping through code. GDB, short for the GNU Debugger, is a versatile and portable debugging tool designed to run on a wide range of Unix-like systems.