DWARF

Website | Wiki

Tools/Software

dareog: ORC meets DWARF - https://github.com/emersion/dareog
Debug Frame Checking: Check .eh_frame and .debug_frame information
- https://github.com/francesco-zappa-nardelli/eh_frame_check
DIVA - Debug Information Visual Analyzer
- DIVA is a command line tool that processes DWARF debug information contained within ELF files and prints the semantics of that debug information. The DIVA output is designed to be understandable by software programmers without any low-level compiler or DWARF knowledge; as such, it can be used to report debug information bugs to the compiler provider.
- https://github.com/SNSystems/DIVA
- 2017 EuroLLVM Developers’ Meeting lightning talk
  - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwtpXaCk2bE
  - slides: http://llvm.org/devmtg/2017-03/assets/slides/diva_debug_information_visual_analyzer.pdf
dsymutil - manipulate archived DWARF debug symbol files
- https://llvm.org/docs/CommandGuide/dsymutil.html
- https://github.com/llvm-mirror/llvm/tree/master/tools/dsymutil
dwarfexport: Export dwarf debug information from IDA Pro - https://github.com/ALSchwalm/dwarfexport
dwarfidl: Language, library and tools for DWARF-described interfaces - https://github.com/stephenrkell/dwarfidl
dwgrep: a tool, an associated language (Zwerg), and a library (libzwerg) for querying Dwarf (debuginfo) graphs
- project: https://github.com/pmachata/dwgrep
- syntax: http://pmachata.github.io/dwgrep/syntax.html
- tutorial: http://pmachata.github.io/dwgrep/tutorial.html
- website: http://pmachata.github.io/dwgrep/
dwz: DWARF optimization and duplicate removal tool
- https://sourceware.org/git/?p=dwz.git
- https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/DwarfCompressor
- announcement (2012) - https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2012-04/msg00686.html
gimli: A lazy, zero-copy parser for the DWARF debugging format
- https://github.com/gimli-rs/gimli
- Speeding Up dwarfdump With Rust - https://robert.ocallahan.org/2018/03/speeding-up-dwarfdump-with-rust.html
libbacktrace: A C library that may be linked into a C/C++ program to produce symbolic backtraces
- As of September 2016, libbacktrace only supports ELF and PE/COFF executables with DWARF debugging information. The library is written to make it straightforward to add support for other object file and debugging formats.
- https://github.com/ianlancetaylor/libbacktrace
- https://github.com/gcc-mirror/gcc/tree/master/libbacktrace
libdwarf - DWARF debugging information - https://sourceforge.net/projects/libdwarf/
- Libdwarf And Dwarfdump - http://wiki.dwarfstd.org/index.php?title=Libdwarf_And_Dwarfdump
- Libdwarf: Library to provide access to DWARF debugging information
  - Libdwarf meta repository that combines libdwarf with its dependency libelf
  - https://github.com/avast-tl/libdwarf
libdwarfpp: A high-level API for accessing DWARF debugging information in C++
- https://github.com/stephenrkell/libdwarfpp
libdwarfw: A C library to write DWARF debugging information
- https://github.com/emersion/libdwarfw
llvm-dwarfdump - dump and verify DWARF debug information
- https://llvm.org/docs/CommandGuide/llvm-dwarfdump.html
llvm-locstats - calculate statistics on DWARF debug location
- https://llvm.org/docs/CommandGuide/llvm-locstats.html
Pahole and the dwarves: Debugging Information Manipulation Tools
- https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/devel/pahole/pahole.git/
- https://github.com/acmel/dwarves
- https://www.spinics.net/lists/dwarves/
- The 7 dwarves: debugging information beyond gdb - https://landley.net/kdocs/ols/2007/ols2007v2-pages-35-44.pdf
- Poke-a-hole and friends - https://lwn.net/Articles/335942/
- pahole and other DWARF2 utilities - https://lwn.net/Articles/206805/
- How to avoid wasting megabytes of memory a few bytes at a time - https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2016/06/01/how-to-avoid-wasting-megabytes-of-memory-a-few-bytes-at-a-time/
structhole: Look for holes in structs by examining DWARF debugging output - https://github.com/cemeyer/structhole

Readings

Introduction to the DWARF Debugging Format - http://www.dwarfstd.org/doc/Debugging%20using%20DWARF.pdf
The contents of DWARF sections - https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2011/12/26/the-contents-of-dwarf-sections
Exploring the DWARF debug format information - https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-dwarf-debug-format/index.html
DWARF Package File Format - https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFissionDWP
An interesting tree serialization algorithm from DWARF - https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2011/09/29/an-interesting-tree-serialization-algorithm-from-dwarf
David A's DWARF Page - https://www.prevanders.net/dwarf.html
Debug Information is Huge and What to do About It - https://documentation.backtrace.io/dwarf/
Debugging formats DWARF and STAB - https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/os-debugging/
DWARF Extensions for Separate Debug Information Files - https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
From Debugging-Information Based Binary-Level Type Inference to CFG Generation
- Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy (CODASPY) 2018
- D. Zeng and G. Tan
- http://www.cse.psu.edu/~gxt29/papers/cfgConsMeta.pdf
How debuggers work: Part 3 - Debugging information - http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2011/02/07/how-debuggers-work-part-3-debugging-information
Implementing a Debugger: The Fundamentals - https://backtrace.io/blog/debugger-internals/
Improving C++ Builds with Split DWARF - https://www.productive-cpp.com/improving-cpp-builds-with-split-dwarf/
Programmatic access to the call stack in C++ - https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2015/programmatic-access-to-the-call-stack-in-c/
Querying DWARF For Fun And Profit - https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/01/22/querying-dwarf-for-fun-and-profit/
Reliable and Fast DWARF-based Stack Unwinding
- OOPSLA 2019
- Théophile Bastian, Stephen Kell, Francesco Zappa Nardelli
- https://www.di.ens.fr/~zappa/projects/frdwarf/
- https://2019.splashcon.org/details/splash-2019-oopsla/30/Reliable-and-Fast-DWARF-based-Stack-Unwinding
Using COMDAT Sections to Reduce the Size of DWARF Debug Information - https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DwarfSeparateTypeInfo
Where are your symbols, debuginfo and sources? - https://gnu.wildebeest.org/blog/mjw/2016/02/02/where-are-your-symbols-debuginfo-and-sources/
Writing a Linux Debugger Part 4: Elves and dwarves - https://blog.tartanllama.xyz/writing-a-linux-debugger-elf-dwarf/

Talks

2018 - DWARF v5 Highlights - Why You Care
- 2018 LLVM Developers’ Meeting; Paul Robinson
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pb00xz8uH8
2018 - FOSDEM 2018 - Debugging Tools
- DWARF Pieces And Other DWARF Location Woes - https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/dwarfpieces/
- DWARF5 and GNU extensions - https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/debugging_tools_dwarf5/
- Rust versus DWARF versus LLVM - https://fosdem.org/2018/schedule/event/debugging_tools_rust/
2017 - Consistent Views at Recommended Breakpoints (bis), GNU Tools Cauldron 2017
- https://slideslive.com/38902686/consistent-views-at-recommended-breakpoints-bis
- Related post: https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2017/07/11/statement-frontier-notes-and-location-views/
2017 - Build-ids, symbols and debuginfo tooling BoF, GNU Tools Cauldron 2017
- https://slideslive.com/38902681/buildids-symbols-and-debuginfo-tooling-bof
2017 - Debugging Debug Information - Francesco Zappa Nardelli - Workshop on Software Correctness and Reliability 2017
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBJIrGgEP1A
- Tales from Binary Formats (ENTROPY 2018 slides) - https://entropy2018.sciencesconf.org/data/nardelli.pdf
2016 - Debugging debuggers!! (Symbolic Debugging with DWARF)
2016 - Cheap generation of debugging information - http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/talks/Compilation-2016.pdf
2016 - Fixing LTO Debug Information - GNU Tools Cauldron 2016 - https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/cauldron2016?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Cauldron2016-LTOEarlyDebug.pdf - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtm7DxDG5js
2015 - What is new in DWARF5 - Hafiz Abid Qadeer, GNU Tools Cauldron 2015
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q04ScFDCmyQ&gl=CA
- https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/cauldron2015?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Hafiz+Abid+Qadeer_+What+is+new+in+DWARF5.pdf
2013 - DWARF What Should GCC Tell GDB - GNU Tools Cauldron 2013 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aWmp5FXLb0
2012 - Dwarf Oriented Programming - Overwriting the Exception Handling Cache Pointer - DEFCON 20
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjjTZatJ3ao
- https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-20/dc-20-presentations/Branco-Oakley-Bratus/DEFCON-20-Branco-Oakley-Bratus-Dwarf-Oriented-Programming.pdf
2011 - Exploiting the hard-working DWARF: Trojan and Exploit Techniques With No Native Executable Code
- http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~sergey/battleaxe/
- Slides: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~sergey/battleaxe/hackito_2011_oakley_bratus.pdf
- Report: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/reports/TR2011-688.pdf
- Paper: https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/woot11/tech/final_files/Oakley.pdf
- Video (WOOT'11): https://www.usenix.org/conference/woot11/exploiting-hard-working-dwarf-trojan-and-exploit-techniques-no-native-executable
- Video (Shmoocon 2011): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLH7ytOTYto

Tags: format native elf reading dwarf

Last modified 07 July 2025

DWARF

Debugging format for ELF excutables

Tools/Software

Readings

Talks