Talk about how the polymorphic bottom layer (virtual method call) in C\

Recently, I was looking at the implementation principle of virtual method calls in C++, which means that a pointer to the vtable array pointer array is stored in the first position of the class, and each pointer element in the vtable array points to its own virtual method. The implementation method is very interesting. Haha, now I am curious about how to implement it in C\.

1: Polymorphic play in C\

1. a simple C\

For the convenience of explanation, I define a Person class and a Chinese class. The detailed code is as follows:

    internal class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Person person = new Chinese();

            person.SayHello();

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

    public class Person
    {
        public virtual void SayHello()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("sayhello");
        }
    }

    public class Chinese: Person
    {
        public override void SayHello()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("chinese");
        }
    }
}

2. assembly code analysis

Next, use windbg in person At the next breakpoint at sayhello (), take a look at its disassembly Code:

D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs @ 9:
05cf21b3 b93c5dce05      mov     ecx,5CE5D3Ch (MT: ConsoleApp1.Chinese)
05cf21b8 e8030f89fa      call    005830c0 (JitHelp: CORINFO_HELP_NEWSFAST)
05cf21bd 8945f4          mov     dword ptr [ebp-0Ch],eax
05cf21c0 8b4df4          mov     ecx,dword ptr [ebp-0Ch]
05cf21c3 e820fbffff      call    05cf1ce8 (ConsoleApp1.Chinese..ctor(), mdToken: 0600000A)
05cf21c8 8b4df4          mov     ecx,dword ptr [ebp-0Ch]
05cf21cb 894df8          mov     dword ptr [ebp-8],ecx

D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs @ 11:
>>> 05cf21ce 8b4df8          mov     ecx,dword ptr [ebp-8]
05cf21d1 8b45f8          mov     eax,dword ptr [ebp-8]
05cf21d4 8b00            mov     eax,dword ptr [eax]
05cf21d6 8b4028          mov     eax,dword ptr [eax+28h]
05cf21d9 ff5010          call    dword ptr [eax+10h]
05cf21dc 90              nop

From the assembly code, the logic is very clear, and the general steps are as follows:

  1. eax,dword ptr [ebp-8]

Get the first address of person on the heap from the stack (ebp-8). If you don't believe it, you can use! do 027ea88c try it.

0:000> dp ebp-8 L1
0057f300  027ea88c

0:000> !do 027ea88c
Name:        ConsoleApp1.Chinese
MethodTable: 05ce5d3c
EEClass:     05cd3380
Size:        12(0xc) bytes
File:        D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\bin\x86\Debug\net6.0\ConsoleApp1.dll
Fields:
None

  1. eax,dword ptr [eax]

If you know the memory layout of the instance on the heap, you should know that the first address stores the methodtable pointer, which we can use! dumpmt 05ce5d3c to verify.

0:000> dp 027ea88c L1
027ea88c  05ce5d3c

0:000> !dumpmt 05ce5d3c
EEClass:         05cd3380
Module:          05addb14
Name:            ConsoleApp1.Chinese
mdToken:         02000007
File:            D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\bin\x86\Debug\net6.0\ConsoleApp1.dll
BaseSize:        0xc
ComponentSize:   0x0
DynamicStatics:  false
ContainsPointers false
Slots in VTable: 6
Number of IFaces in IFaceMap: 0

  1. eax,dword ptr [eax+28h]

What does that mean? If you know CoreCLR, you should know that the methodtable is hosted by a class MethodTable class, so it takes a field with the methodtable offset of 0x28. What is the offset field? First, we use dt to export the methodtable structure.

0:000> dt 05ce5d3c MethodTable
coreclr!MethodTable
   =7ad96bc8 s_pMethodDataCache : 0x00639ec8 MethodDataCache
   =7ad96bc4 s_fUseParentMethodData : 0n1
   =7ad96bcc s_fUseMethodDataCache : 0n1
   +0x000 m_dwFlags        : 0xc
   +0x004 m_BaseSize       : 0x74088
   +0x008 m_wFlags2        : 5
   +0x00a m_wToken         : 0
   +0x00c m_wNumVirtuals   : 0x5ccc
   +0x00e m_wNumInterfaces : 0x5ce
   +0x010 m_pParentMethodTable : IndirectPointer<MethodTable *>
   +0x014 m_pLoaderModule  : PlainPointer<Module *>
   +0x018 m_pWriteableData : PlainPointer<MethodTableWriteableData *>
   +0x01c m_pEEClass       : PlainPointer<EEClass *>
   +0x01c m_pCanonMT       : PlainPointer<unsigned long>
   +0x020 m_pPerInstInfo   : PlainPointer<PlainPointer<Dictionary *> *>
   +0x020 m_ElementTypeHnd : 0
   +0x020 m_pMultipurposeSlot1 : 0
   +0x024 m_pInterfaceMap  : PlainPointer<InterfaceInfo_t *>
   +0x024 m_pMultipurposeSlot2 : 0x5ce5d68
   =7ad04c78 c_DispatchMapSlotOffsets : [0]  " $ (System.Private.CoreLib.dll"
   =7ad04c70 c_NonVirtualSlotsOffsets : [0]  " $ ($((, $ (System.Private.CoreLib.dll"
   =7ad04c60 c_ModuleOverrideOffsets : [0]  " $ ($((,$((,(,,0 $ ($((, $ (System.Private.CoreLib.dll"
   =7ad12838 c_OptionalMembersStartOffsets : [0]  "(((((((,(((,(,,0(((,(,,0(,,0,004"

From the layout of methodtable, eax+28h is m_ The second field of pmultipurposeslot2 structure, because the first field is the virtual method table pointer. If you want to verify, it is also very simple. Use! dumpmt -md 05ce5d3c export all the methods, and then combine dp 05ce5d3c to see if there are many methods after 0x5ce5d68.

0:000> !dumpmt -md 05ce5d3c
EEClass:         05cd3380
Module:          05addb14
Name:            ConsoleApp1.Chinese
mdToken:         02000007
File:            D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\bin\x86\Debug\net6.0\ConsoleApp1.dll
BaseSize:        0xc
ComponentSize:   0x0
DynamicStatics:  false
ContainsPointers false
Slots in VTable: 6
Number of IFaces in IFaceMap: 0
--------------------------------------
MethodDesc Table
   Entry MethodDe    JIT Name
02610028 02605568   NONE System.Object.Finalize()
02610030 02605574   NONE System.Object.ToString()
02610038 02605580   NONE System.Object.Equals(System.Object)
02610050 026055ac   NONE System.Object.GetHashCode()
05CF1CE0 05ce5d24   NONE ConsoleApp1.Chinese.SayHello()
05CF1CE8 05ce5d30    JIT ConsoleApp1.Chinese..ctor()
0:000> dp 05ce5d3c L10
05ce5d3c  00000200 0000000c 00074088 00000005
05ce5d4c  05ce5ccc 05addb14 05ce5d7c 05cd3380
05ce5d5c  05cf1ce8 00000000 05ce5d68 02610028
05ce5d6c  02610030 02610038 02610050 05cf1ce0

Take a closer look at the output. 02610028 after 05ce5d68 above is system Object. Finalize() method, 02610030 corresponds to system Object. Tostring() method.

  1. call dword ptr [eax+10h]

With the above foundation, this sentence is easy to understand. It starts from M_ Find the location of the cell pointer where SayHello is located in the pmultipurposelot2 structure, and then make a call.

0:000> !U 05cf1ce0
Unmanaged code
05cf1ce0 e88f9dde74      call    coreclr!PrecodeFixupThunk (7aadba74)
05cf1ce5 5e              pop     esi
05cf1ce6 0001            add     byte ptr [ecx],al
05cf1ce8 e913050000      jmp     05cf2200
05cf1ced 5f              pop     edi
05cf1cee 0300            add     eax,dword ptr [eax]
05cf1cf0 245d            and     al,5Dh
05cf1cf2 ce              into
05cf1cf3 0500000000      add     eax,0
05cf1cf8 0000            add     byte ptr [eax],al

From the assembly point of view, it is still a piece of pile code. The implication is that the method has not been JIT compiled. If the compilation is completed, 05cf1ce0 05ce5d24 none consoleapp1 Chinese. The Entry (05CF1CE0) of sayhello() will also be modified synchronously. It is easy to verify. We will continue to compile the go code, and then dumpmt.

0:008> !dumpmt -md 05ce5d3c
EEClass:         05cd3380
Module:          05addb14
Name:            ConsoleApp1.Chinese
mdToken:         02000007
File:            D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\bin\x86\Debug\net6.0\ConsoleApp1.dll
BaseSize:        0xc
ComponentSize:   0x0
DynamicStatics:  false
ContainsPointers false
Slots in VTable: 6
Number of IFaces in IFaceMap: 0
--------------------------------------
MethodDesc Table
   Entry MethodDe    JIT Name
02610028 02605568   NONE System.Object.Finalize()
02610030 02605574   NONE System.Object.ToString()
02610038 02605580   NONE System.Object.Equals(System.Object)
02610050 026055ac   NONE System.Object.GetHashCode()
05CF2270 05ce5d24    JIT ConsoleApp1.Chinese.SayHello()
05CF1CE8 05ce5d30    JIT ConsoleApp1.Chinese..ctor()

0:008> dp 05ce5d3c L10
05ce5d3c  00000200 0000000c 00074088 00000005
05ce5d4c  05ce5ccc 05addb14 05ce5d7c 05cd3380
05ce5d5c  05cf1ce8 00000000 05ce5d68 02610028
05ce5d6c  02610030 02610038 02610050 05cf2270

At this point, you can see that it has changed from 05cf1ce0 to 05cf2270. This is the JIT compiled method code. We use! U decompile.

0:008> !U 05cf2270
Normal JIT generated code
ConsoleApp1.Chinese.SayHello()
ilAddr is 05E720D5 pImport is 008F6E88
Begin 05CF2270, size 27

D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs @ 28:
>>> 05cf2270 55              push    ebp
05cf2271 8bec            mov     ebp,esp
05cf2273 50              push    eax
05cf2274 894dfc          mov     dword ptr [ebp-4],ecx
05cf2277 833d74dcad0500  cmp     dword ptr ds:[5ADDC74h],0
05cf227e 7405            je      05cf2285
05cf2280 e8cb2bf174      call    coreclr!JIT_DbgIsJustMyCode (7ac04e50)
05cf2285 90              nop

D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs @ 29:
05cf2286 8b0d74207e04    mov     ecx,dword ptr ds:[47E2074h] ("chinese")
05cf228c e8dffbffff      call    05cf1e70
05cf2291 90              nop

D:\net6\ConsoleApplication2\ConsoleApp1\Program.cs @ 30:
05cf2292 90              nop
05cf2293 8be5            mov     esp,ebp
05cf2295 5d              pop     ebp
05cf2296 c3              ret

Finally, this is consoleapp1 Chinese. Sayhello method.

3. summary

In essence, CoreCLR is also written in C++, so we can't escape the game of using virtual tables to realize polymorphism. However, the game is a little more complicated. I hope this article will be helpful to you.

Posted by GodzMessanja on Thu, 02 Jun 2022 05:31:34 +0530