Become a leader in the IoT community!

Join our community of embedded and IoT practitioners to contribute experience, learn new skills and collaborate with other developers with complementary skillsets.

Step 1 of 5

CREATE YOUR PROFILE *Required

OR
Step 2 of 5

WHAT BRINGS YOU TO DEVHEADS? *Choose 1 or more

Connect & collaborate ðŸ¤with other tech professionals
Learn & Grow 📚
Contribute Experience & Expertise 🔧
Step 3 of 5

WHAT'S YOUR INTEREST OR EXPERTISE? *Choose 1 or more

Hardware Design 💡
Embedded Software 💻
Edge Networking âš¡
Step 4 of 5

Personalize your profile

Step 5 of 5

Read & agree to our COMMUNITY RULES

  1. We want this server to be a welcoming space! Treat everyone with respect. Absolutely no harassment, witch hunting, sexism, racism, or hate speech will be tolerated.
  2. If you see something against the rules or something that makes you feel unsafe, let staff know by messaging @admin in the "support-tickets" tab in the Live DevChat menu.
  3. No age-restricted, obscene or NSFW content. This includes text, images, or links featuring nudity, sex, hard violence, or other graphically disturbing content.
  4. No spam. This includes DMing fellow members.
  5. You must be over the age of 18 years old to participate in our community.
  6. You agree to our Terms of Service (https://www.devheads.io/terms-of-service/) and Privacy Policy (https://www.devheads.io/privacy-policy)
By clicking "Finish", you have read and agreed to the our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Why Does movl (%eax), %edx Crash After Using Custom malloc_ Implementation in Assembly?

I have implemented a custom memory allocation function using `sys_mmap` for memory allocation. Here’s my code for the `malloc_` function:

malloc_:
   pushq   %rbp
   movq    %rsp, %rbp

   mov     %rdi, %rcx        # store size
   movl    $9, %eax          # system call 9: sys_mmap
   movq    $0, %rdi          # start address
   movq    %rcx, %rsi        # size
   movl    $3, %edx          # page flags (PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE)
   mov     $34, %r10         # mem flags (MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_ANONYMOUS)
   movl    $-1, %r8d         # file descriptor
   movl    $0, %r9d          # offset
   syscall

   cmp     $0, %rax
   jg      .L1.malloc_exit_  # jump if allocation was successful
   mov     $0, %rax          # set return value to 0 if failed
   .L1.malloc_exit_:
   popq    %rbp
   retq

In my `main` function, I use `malloc_` to allocate memory like this:

.globl main
main:
    pushq   %rbp
    movq    %rsp, %rbp

    mov     $512, %rdi        # size to allocate
    call    malloc_
    cmp     $0, %rax          # check if allocation failed
    je      exit
    // movl (%eax), %edx      // <---- causes a crash
    mov     (%rax), %rdx      // <---- works fine

exit:
    # Exit code here

The issue I don’t understand is why the line `movl (%eax), %edx` causes a crash, but using `mov (%rax), %rdx` works perfectly fine.

If I use the system provided `malloc` function instead, both lines work without issue. What could be causing this behavior with my custom `malloc_` function?

CONTRIBUTE TO THIS THREAD

Browse other questions tagged 

Leaderboard

RANKED BY XP

All time
  • 1.
    Avatar
    @Nayel115
    1620 XP
  • 2.
    Avatar
    @UcGee
    650 XP
  • 3.
    Avatar
    @melta101
    600 XP
  • 4.
    Avatar
    @chitour
    600 XP
  • 5.
    Avatar
    @lifegochi
    250 XP
  • 6.
    Avatar
    @Youuce
    180 XP