Read and write physical memory on OS X
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Read and Write physical memory on OS X
This ~~can~~ WILL crash your machine!
- [X] No safety checks
- [X] No validation of content
- [X] No restrictions on where things are written (other than SMM, etc)
- [X] No warranty
The purpose of this tool is to read and write physical memory addresses of the running system. It is possible to crash the machine by writing to arbitrary pages, corrupt the kernel, mess up memory mappings, etc. It is not recommended for novice users. This is probably not the chainsaw/sledgehammer/atomic-bomb that you're looking for.
Loading the
DirectHW.kextgives any root process the ability to poke anywhere on the system. It is basically a deliberate backdoor in the kernel. You can download it from Snare's site, if you trust him more than the one bundled in this repository: http://ho.ax/downloads/DirectHW.dmg
Usage
After installing the
DirectHW.dmgfile, load the kernel extension as root:
sudo kextutil /System/Library/Extensions/DirectHW.kext
Read your machine's serial number:
sudo ./rdmem 0xffffff00 256 | xxd -g 1
Read the "BIOS Region" of your boot ROM for analysis (the flash descriptor, Intel management engine and gig-e sections show up as all 0xFF):
sudo ./rdmem 0xff990000 0x670000 > mac-bios.bin
NOTES
- Reading the SMM region will cause the kernel to panic.
- Reading the PCI BAR regions byte at a time with
memcpy()
orwrite()
will will generate all 0xFF since the byte-wise access is not defined.rdmem
andrdpci
will do the right thing with their copy routine.