[MI400] running PowerPC instructions in a user space

["Steve Richter" <srichter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been curious to know if PowerPC encoded instructions could be place
in a user space and an RPG program be made to branch its execution to that
code.   The answer, after a little bit of digging and experimenting ( and
reading the archives! ), is that yes, that can be done.

The as400/ppc uses 8 byte pointers when it branches to code in a program.
It also uses 8 byte pointers when it loads and stores data to 8 byte
addresses of data in user spaces.  The theory is that the 8 byte address of
a data that is stored to in a user space can also be branched to using that
same 8 byte address.

Here is rpg code that copys 4 bytes ( a word ) pointed to by a pointer into
an rpg program variable:
 d pData        s            *
 d Data         s           4a   based(pData)
 d ch4          s           4a
  /free
       ch4      = Data ;

here is the corresponding PowerPC code:
 LQ     20, 0x1e40(30), 6
 SELRI  23, 21, 0, 41
 LWZ    22, 0x0(23)
 STW    22, 0x128( 30 )

LQ loads "pData", the pointer ( quad word ) stored at EA ( effective
address ) reg30 + 0x1e40, into reg20 and reg21.   reg30 is the pointer to
either the automatic storage of the RPG program or to its procedure call
stack. Not sure which.  0x1e40 is the displacement from reg30 to the "pData"
variable.

SELRI does something to reg21 with the result ending up in reg23. reg21 is
important because it holds the actual pointer after LQ loaded both reg20 and
reg21.

LWZ ( load word, zero fill ) loads the word ( 4 bytes ) located at EA reg23
+ 0 into reg22.  These are the 4 characters pointed to by "pData" in the rpg
program.

STW stores the word stored in reg22 into the word at EA reg30 + 0x128.  That
is the rpg variable "ch4".

That is how the PowerPC loads and stores data to an EA.  The following is
PPC code that would branch execution to code at that same address:
  mtspr    9, 23
  bcctrl   20, 0

MTSPR ( move to special register ) moves reg23 to special register #9. That
is the "count" register.
http://www.nersc.gov/vendor_docs/ibm/asm/mtspr.htm#a29891041

BCCTRL ( branch conditional to count register ) branches to the address
stored in the count register.  ( the 20 means do it unconditionally ).
Because there is an "L" at the end of the opcode name ( BCCTRL instead of
BCCTR ) it also stores the return address, the address of the next
instruction, in the link register.

Here is the PowerPC code that branches to the instruction words pointed to
by the above RPG variable "pData"
 E29E1E46   LQ      20, 0x1e40(30), 6
 7AB7049C   SELRI   23, 21, 0, 41
 7EE903A6   mtspr   9, 23
 4E800421   bcctrl  20, 0

The hex values in the left column is the hex external form of the 4 byte
power pc instructions.  This site is pretty good at explaining what the
encoding is all about:
http://www.nersc.gov/vendor_docs/ibm/asm/mastertoc.htm

Here is code that when executed will store an immediate value to an EA and
then branch unconditionally to the link register:
 3A600320     addi  19, 0, 800
 927E012C     stw   19, 30, 300
 4E800020     bclr  20, 0

The first stmt effectively places the immediate value 800 into reg19.  The
"stw" stmt stores reg19 to the word at EA reg30 + 300.  The last stmt,
"bclr" branches unconditionally to the address in the link register.

If this code is stored in a user space, it can be executed from an RPG
program by doing the following:
  - make sure "pData" points to the data/code in the user space
  - use the display/alter/dump facility of STRSST to punch the mtspr and
bcctrl stmts shown above in place of the LWZ and STW in the rpg program:

original RPG emitted code:
 LQ     20, 0x1e40(30), 6
 SELRI  23, 21, 0, 41
 LWZ    22, 0x0(23)
 STW    22, 0x128( 30 )

becomes:
 E29E1E46   LQ      20, 0x1e40(30), 6
 7AB7049C   SELRI   23, 21, 0, 41
 7EE903A6   mtspr   9, 23
 4E800421   bcctrl  20, 0

The user space code to be executed:
 3A600320     addi  19, 0, 800
 927E012C     stw   19, 30, 300
 4E800020     bclr  20, 0

is going to store the immed word value "800" to displacement 300 from the au
tomatic storage of the RPG program.  That was the displacement to a 10i 0
int variable in the rpg program I was working with.  It is there to prove
the concept that the patched rpg code actually did branch to the user space
and execute the above statements.  If you are going to do the same you
should change that displacement to a value you see from using SST to dump
your own RPG code.

What I did was add a breakpoint to the rpg program at the statement after
the one that was patched, ran the code, hoped for the best and presto, the
breakpoint broke and an EVAL of the RPG INT variable showed that it
contained the value "800" !

-Steve Richter