iOS ARM64 Syscalls

Question

I am learning more about shellcode and making syscalls in arm64 on iOS devices. The device I am testing on is iPhone 6S.

I got the list of syscalls from this link (h

Answer 1

This should get you going. As @Siguza mentioned you must use x16 , not x8 for the syscall number.

#import 
char testStringGlobal[] = "helloWorld from global variable\n";
int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
    char testStringOnStack[] = "helloWorld from stack variable\n";
#if TARGET_CPU_ARM64

    //VARIANT 1 suggested by @PeterCordes
    //an an input it's a file descriptor set to STD_OUT 1 so the syscall write output appears in Xcode debug output
    //as an output this will be used for returning syscall return value;
    register long x0 asm("x0") = 1;
    //as an input string to write
    //as an output this will be used for returning syscall return value higher half (in this particular case 0)
    register char *x1 asm("x1") = testStringOnStack;
    //string length
    register long x2 asm("x2") = strlen(testStringOnStack);
    //syscall write is 4
    register long x16 asm("x16") = SYS_write; //syscall write definition - see my footnote below

    //full variant using stack local variables for register x0,x1,x2,x16 input
    //syscall result collected in x0 & x1 using "semi" intrinsic assembler
    asm volatile(//all args prepared, make the syscall
                 "svc #0x80"
                 :"=r"(x0),"=r"(x1) //mark x0 & x1 as syscall outputs
                 :"r"(x0), "r"(x1), "r"(x2), "r"(x16): //mark the inputs
                 //inform the compiler we read the memory
                 "memory",
                 //inform the compiler we clobber carry flag (during the syscall itself)
                 "cc");

    //VARIANT 2
    //syscall write for globals variable using "semi" intrinsic assembler
    //args hardcoded
    //output of syscall is ignored
    asm volatile(//prepare x1 with the help of x8 register
                 "mov x1, %0 \t\n"
                 //set file descriptor to STD_OUT 1 so it appears in Xcode debug output
                 "mov x0, #1 \t\n"
                 //hardcoded length
                 "mov x2, #32 \t\n"
                 //syscall write is 4
                 "mov x16, #0x4 \t\n"
                 //all args prepared, make the syscall
                 "svc #0x80"
                 ::"r"(testStringGlobal):
                 //clobbered registers list
                 "x1","x0","x2","x16",
                 //inform the compiler we read the memory
                 "memory",
                 //inform the compiler we clobber carry flag (during the syscall itself)
                 "cc");

    //VARIANT 3 - only applicable to global variables using "page" address
    //which is  PC-relative addressing to load addresses at a fixed offset from the current location (PIC code).
    //syscall write for global variable using "semi" intrinsic assembler
    asm volatile(//set x1 on proper PAGE
                 "adrp x1,_testStringGlobal@PAGE \t\n" //notice the underscore preceding variable name by convention
                 //add the offset of the testStringGlobal variable
                 "add x1,x1,_testStringGlobal@PAGEOFF \t\n"
                 //set file descriptor to STD_OUT 1 so it appears in Xcode debug output
                 "mov x0, #1 \t\n"
                 //hardcoded length
                 "mov x2, #32 \t\n"
                 //syscall write is 4
                 "mov x16, #0x4 \t\n"
                 //all args prepared, make the syscall
                 "svc #0x80"
                 :::
                 //clobbered registers list
                 "x1","x0","x2","x16",
                 //inform the compiler we read the memory
                 "memory",
                 //inform the compiler we clobber carry flag (during the syscall itself)
                 "cc");
#endif
    @autoreleasepool {
        return UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass([AppDelegate class]));
    }
}

EDIT

To @PeterCordes excellent comment, yes there is a syscall numbers definition header which I included in the above snippet^ in Variant 1. But it's important to mention inside it's defined by Apple like this:

#ifdef __APPLE_API_PRIVATE
#define SYS_syscall        0
#define SYS_exit           1
#define SYS_fork           2
#define SYS_read           3
#define SYS_write          4

I haven't heard of a case yet of an iOS app AppStore rejection due to using a system call directly through svc 0x80 nonetheless it's definitely not public API.

As for the suggested "=@ccc" by @PeterCordes i.e. carry flag (set by syscall upon error) as an output constraint that's not supported as of latest XCode11 beta / LLVM 8.0.0 even for x86 and definitely not for ARM.