Problem with reading procfs

[Simone]

Hi, I'm developing an application that access the procfs and then
read/write /proc/<PID>/mem of a process to change the content of a
file
owned by that process.

The sequential steps performed by the application are the followings:

1) catch, by using ptrace, of the "read" system call
2) read the file content directly on /proc/PID/mem
3) modify this content
4) write back the modified content on /proc/PD/mem

The problem is that it returns "Error 22 Invalid argument" every time
it tries to read (or write) on procfs.
(I've already patched the kernel to allow read/write operation on
/proc/<pid>/mem and I've tried the pread/pwrite functions, but they
have the same behavior).

This is an extract of my code:


....
int eax_reg, ecx_reg, ret;
char * buffer;
char orig_buf[eax_reg+1];
char proc_path[MAX_FILE_NAME+1];

// traced_proc is the pid_t of the traced process
// get number of bytes to read
eax_reg = ptrace(PTRACE_PEEKUSER, traced_proc, 4*EAX, NULL);
// get traced process space buffer
ecx_reg = ptrace(PTRACE_PEEKUSER, traced_proc, 4*ECX, NULL);

buffer = malloc(sizeof(char)*eax_reg);
memset(orig_buf,0,eax_reg+1);
memset(proc_path, 0, sizeof(proc_path));

sprintf(proc_path, "/proc/%d/mem", traced_proc);
fd_proc = open(proc_path, O_RDWR);

lseek(fd_proc, ecx_reg, SEEK_SET);
int ret = read(fd_proc, buffer, eax_reg);
if (ret < 0) {
perror("read");
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to read: %d - %s\n", errno, strerror(errno));
}
....


if I run the application with strace, the output for the code shown
above is:

open("/proc/13271/mem", O_RDWR) = 3
lseek(3, 3086368768, SEEK_SET) = 3086368768
read(3, 0xbfca0940, 280) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument)

Can someone tell me where I'm wrong?
Thanks in advance for any help...

 

[Walter Roberson]

Hi, I'm developing an application that access the procfs and then
read/write /proc/<PID>/mem of a process to change the content of a
file
owned by that process.

Everything you describe is operating system dependant, and so should
be addressed to a newsgroup that is specific to your OS.

Even different OSs that support procfs have differences in how to
use them properly.

 

[Flash Gordon]

Simone wrote, On 11/12/07 21:29:

Hi, I'm developing an application that access the procfs and then
read/write /proc/<PID>/mem of a process to change the content of a

open("/proc/13271/mem", O_RDWR) = 3
lseek(3, 3086368768, SEEK_SET) = 3086368768
read(3, 0xbfca0940, 280) = -1 EINVAL (Invalid argument)

Can someone tell me where I'm wrong?
Thanks in advance for any help...

This is all very Linux specific (not even Posix I believe) so you should
ask in one of the Linux groups after checking the relevant FAQs/charters
and a weeks worth of postings to see what goes on.

Note that just because someone once posted about a topic on a group that
does not mean the post was topical, and it might be that the responses
(if any) were just pointing out that it was not topical, so you need to
read posts not just look at subject lines.

For more information about what a lot of regulars consider to be topical
and why see http://clc-wiki.net/wiki/Introduction_to_comp.lang.c