Boot Sector Programming
Boot Sector Programming
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Budhaditya Majumdar
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PROGRAMMING
BUDHADITYA MAJUMDAR order to restore the lost data. All of 4. Setting up an extremely simple
these applications demand the knowl- interrupt table (IDT for kernel-based
T
wo methods have been pre- edge of the bootstrap, i.e., how a com- interrupts).
sented here to boot your PC puter functions when PC is switched 5. Initialising a 32bit stack (Pro-
using ‘Assembly’ and ‘C’ pro- on. tected mode requires a 32bit address-
grams, respectively. A word of cau- At the completion of your system’s able stack).
tion though: Tampering with the boot POST, INT 0x13 is called. Usually INT 6. Jumping to the address that con-
sector program of a computer can ren- 0x13 tries to read a boot sector pro- tains the loaded data. This runs the
der the machine inoperable. So it is gram from the first floppy drive. If a data.
advised to test the programs using boot sector program is found on the
floppy disks or non-critical hard drives floppy disk, the boot sector program Getting started!
prior to transferring your boot sector is read into memory at location The boot sector programs presented
program onto a live system. ‘0000:7C00’ and INT 0x13 jumps to here are not OS loaders, but programs
The bootstrap or bootloader is a memory location ‘0000:7C00.’ How- that show the working on bootloaders.
small program loaded by the BIOS ever, if no boot sector program is Writing your own boot sector program
(Basic Input Output System) upon found on the first floppy drive, INT is probably actually easier than you
system startup. The BIOS loads the 0x13 tries to read the MBR from the think. All you really need to know is
bootstrap from a known location first hard drive. how the Intel processor boots up.
and transfers control. It is the If an MBR is found it is read into A valid boot sector program has
bootstrap’s responsibility to load code memory at location ‘0000:7C00’ and a ‘Boot Signature.’ When the BIOS
and build an appropriate operating INT 0x13 jumps to memory location checks the first sector of the disks, it
environment. ‘0000:7C00.’ The small program in looks for a specific signature denot-
The bootloader program is stored the MBR will attempt to locate an ing a valid boot sector. This signa-
in the very first sector of a bootable active (bootable) partition in its par- ture is ‘0AA55h’ located at the offset
device. For example, the first sector of tition table. If such a partition is 1FEh (or 510 dec). So to make a valid
the floppy disk drive would be where found, the boot sector program of boot sector program, you must make
you would put the code of the that partition is read into memory at sure that it is 512-byte long and
bootloader. This sector is known as the location ‘0000:7C00’ and the MBR ‘0AA55h’ is present at the offset 510
‘boot sector.’ The boot sector program program jumps to memory location and located in the very first sector of
is read by the system and loaded into ‘0000:7C00.’ the disk.
memory at ‘0x0:0x7C0’ after the Each operating system has its own The BIOS simply checks drive ‘0’
power-on self-test (POST). boot sector program format. The small (floppy drive ‘A:’) for this code. If not
There are many reasons for writ- program in the boot sector program found, it then checks drive ‘128’ (hard
ing a custom bootstrap program. First must locate the first part of the oper- disk ‘C:’). If a valid boot sector pro-
of all, it helps to understand how a ating system’s kernel loader program gram is found, it is loaded into
computer operates in its rawest form. (or perhaps the kernel itself or a boot the memory at address location
Second, programmers who want to manager program) and read that into 0000:7C00h. So, all you have to do
write their own operating systems will the memory. is write a boot sector program, as-
generally utilise custom bootstrap code A few things which the boot sector semble it into a plain binary file (there
to load and initialise their system. program does are: is no format or header to a boot sec-
Utilities that allow users to select dif- 1. Enabling the A20 line. This al- tor) and write it to the first sector of
ferent operating systems to run at boot lows access to ‘full’ memory space. your disk.
time require a fundamental knowledge 2. Entering Protected mode. This
of the computer boot sequence. Data allows 32-bit addressing for x86-com- Tools required for the
recovery service providers performing patible systems. basic task
digital forensics must understand dif- 3. Setting up basic memory protec- 1. The Assembly programs are com-
ferent boot sector program formats in tion (called GDT). piled using NASM (Netwide assem-