DeforaOS

The source archive for asm 0.2.1 was uploaded moments ago [1], with the following changes: the maximum number of operands per instruction was raised to five (and is easier to tweak) architecture plug-ins can now be (de)initialized deassembly can ... [More] now apply to the whole file, or code parts only fixes for the deassembly of strings on the command-line more accurate deassembly of the x86, amd64, sparc and sparc64 architectures, as well as ELF and PE file formats otherwise nicer output (address size...) Of course more information can also be found in the project's homepage [2]. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3573/asm-0.2.1.tar.gz [2] http://www.defora.org/os/project/15/asm [Less]

The Open World Forum [1] is a yearly conference about Open Source, of which the fourth edition took place last week in Paris, France. A programming contest was organized during the first two days [2], for which a source code sample could be uploaded ... [More] to win a few prizes (and exposure). This was a great occasion to finally write a graphical user interface for the deassembly framework [3], using the library from the asm project. It was called "gdeasm" and pushed into the GEDI project, even though it is not mature yet [4]. Of course, it also allowed for a few bugfixes and improvements to the library. The actual submission for the contest can be found here [5]. After winning the vote tally, it was awarded the second place of the contest by the jury. Besides an awesome prize from HP (a brand new laptop), I could speak about the project for a few minutes on stage, which is probably the first time this happened while being recorded. I would therefore like to thank the organizers and sponsors of this event (Microsoft, HP, af83) and for a great conference. Looking forward to the next edition! [1] http://www.openworldforum.org/ [2] http://www.openworldforum.org/Univers/Code/Awards [3] http://www.defora.org/os/project/15/asm [4] http://www.defora.org/os/project/browse/11?file=/Apps/Devel/src/GEDI/tools/gdeasm.c,v [5] http://openworldforum.cloudapp.net/projects/graphical-cross-architecture-deassembler [Less]

A third release of the mail client [2] is now available, still logically labeled as version 0.0.3 [2]. Support for the IMAP4 protocol is slowly getting good enough for daily use, with some more bugs eliminated. Additionally, software packages for ... [More] NetBSD [3], Debian/hackable:1 [4] and Maemo [5] are available already, as referenced below. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/268/Mailer [2] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3548/Mailer-0.0.3.tar.gz [3] http://cvsweb.netbsd.se/cgi-bin/bsdweb.cgi/wip/deforaos-mailer/ [4] http://build.hackable1.org/ [5] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/blog/123/hackable-1-builds-and-provides-a-package-repository-for-Maemo [Less]

The current status of the (de-)assembler project, asm [1], was demonstrated earlier this month during "Pas Sage en Seine 2011", a security and Open Source event held yearly in Paris [2]. The session was about disassembling Android applications in ... [More] particular [3] and was even filmed [4] (in French though). It was a good opportunity to release everything necessary to build and use asm, which means: libSystem 0.1.6 [5] cpp 0.0.1 [6] asm 0.2.0 [7] Additionally, both the cpp and asm projects have already found their way into pkgsrc-wip [8] as wip/deforaos-cpp and wip/deforaos-asm, where they can be packaged for NetBSD, and hopefully most platforms supported by pkgsrc as well. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/15/asm [2] http://www.passageenseine.org/pes-2011/ [3] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/place/blog/137/Disassembling-Android-applications-at-PSES-2011 [4] http://lacantine.ubicast.eu/videos/pses-disassembling-android-application/ [5] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3527/libSystem-0.1.6.tar.gz [6] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3542/cpp-0.0.1.tar.gz [7] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3545/asm-0.2.0.tar.gz [8] http://pkgsrc-wip.sf.net/ [Less]

I was last Friday in Paris, to contribute to a very nice third instance of the "Pas Sage En Seine" hacking & freedom yearly event [1]. I was supposed to host a workshop about unpacking and disassembly of typical Android applications, but as it ... [More] turned out, the room was too packed for this format to actually make any sense. Thankfully I had prepared about fifteen slides to introduce the subject, which I have added to the papers section here [2]. This session was filmed [3], and even though I couldn't complete the last part about direct downloads of applications from the market, I mentioned an additional way to obtain them. One last note: the session was hosted in French but the slides are in English, as well as xterm in the video :) [1] http://www.passageenseine.org/pses-2011 [2] http://people.defora.org/~khorben/papers/pses2011/Android.pdf [3] http://lacantine.ubicast.eu/videos/pses-disassembling-android-application/ [Less]

This project [1] is among the oldest within the DeforaOS graphical applications [2], and it is finally good enough for a release: the first redistributable archive for the mail client is out! [3] Logically labeled as 0.0.1, it already features: ... [More] viewing local folders (via the mbox format) support for the POP3 protocol likewise for the IMAP4 protocol sending e-mail via the local mailer a user interface suitable for embedded devices [4] Unfortunately the codebase is not entirely bug-free, with known usability issues, and some crashes while handling preferences. Still, I believe it can already be useful in a number of cases, and it is very lightweight indeed. Packaging for various platforms will follow, of course. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/268/Mailer [2] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3426/Graphical-environment [3] http://www.defora.org/os/download/download/3539/Mailer-0.0.1.tar.gz [4] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3438/DeforaOS-Smartphone [Less]

The first modifications allowing DeforaOS to be built on Windows have been pushed in the past couple of days. Some projects can be compiled successfully with a native Windows environment already: libSystem, libApp, libParser, configure and Calendar ... [More] for instance. Porting more Gtk+ applications would be interesting and should be fairly easy. This was tested with gcc, as found in the MinGW project [1]. Many more projects could be compiled with Cygwin of course [2], as it provides a complete POSIX environment. Still, it would be more interesting to be able to run the distributed framework [3] and graphical applications [4] natively on this platform as well. [1] http://www.mingw.org/ [2] http://www.cygwin.com/ [3] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3427/Distributed-environment [4] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3426/Graphical-environment [Less]

Almost two months without a post? Well, actually, I meant to post a few notes about how the Gtk+ 2.0 to 3.0 migration went for the DeforaOS project, but ended up forgetting about it. On the other hand, I've been busy debugging and polishing the ... [More] user interface, and hope to release and package these changes soon. Speaking of which, I haven't given up on releasing hackable:1 dse2, the smartphone environment based on DeforaOS for the GSM stack and user interface. It's just been a pain to iron out the different issues encountered, with a new one appearing every time I managed to fix something. Regardless, it's looking promising, and I've been able to give and receive phone calls again. On the security front, the asm project (and its disassembler) is now waiting to be integrated into UWfirmforce, which would also benefit from an updated user interface (and reporting facility even). It'll take a few more coding nights though. This is also because according to the DeforaOS roadmap, I am focusing on a (re-)implementation of its main functionality: the distributed computing framework. Getting the design right is a challenge in itself already, but I am fairly confident to be able to commit the first working lines of code within a few more weeks. Looking forward to all of these :) [Less]

Earlier this month a new project, PDFViewer [1] was introduced by zecrazytux [2], an external contributor who also participated to the hackable:1 project [3]. It adds a simple and efficient application to the desktop environment [4], visualizing PDF ... [More] files through the poppler library [5]. Of course it can already be found among the other projects developed and listed here [6]. Many thanks to zecrazytux for this contribution! [1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/3530/PDFViewer [2] http://zecrazytux.net/ [3] http://www.hackable1.org/ [4] http://www.defora.org/os/wiki/3426/Graphical-environment [5] http://poppler.freedesktop.org/ [6] http://www.defora.org/os/project/list [Less]

A lot of work has been pushed recently into the (de-)assembler project [1]. It is much more flexible, and much better at handling different architectures now. It was considered meaningful to rename the project (and main executable) to "asm", which ... [More] also has the advantage to no longer conflict with GNU's own assembly program [2]. Among the most interesting additions: really support the sparc and sparc64 architectures; improved the language grammar (handling of memory locations) the ability to de-assemble Android's Dex executable format (and Dalvik bytecode) on-the-fly de-assembly from the command-line; simpler, more efficient API. The relevant plug-in from the C compiler project, c99 [3], was renamed and modified as well. [1] http://www.defora.org/os/project/15/asm [2] http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils/ [3] http://www.defora.org/os/project/890/c99 [Less]