https://proctal.io

Proctal is a tool for modding programs on Linux through a command line interface (CLI) and an abstract programming interface (API).

Features:

• Reading and writing to memory
• Searching for values and byte patterns
• Pausing program execution
• Watching for accesses to memory locations
• Allocating and deallocating memory blocks
• Assembling and disassembling instructions
• Running your own code in the context of the program
• Dumping contents in memory

This example forces a program — whose Process ID (PID) is 15433 — to print Hello, world!

Note

Accessing sensitive parts of other processes most likely requires you to have higher privileges. Try running as root.

CLI

API

Note

If you have a clean state of the source repository you will need to follow some instructions given in the Development section.

You can find the latest version at proctal.io.

You will need the following programs installed on your system:

• GCC
• Libtool
• sed

Optional:

• Capstone - Disassembling instructions.
• Keystone - Assembling instructions.

Proctal provides the familiar configure, compile and install process:

Run ./configure -h to read about the options you have available that can change how Proctal will be compiled and installed.

CLI

The command line tool is a program called proctal that takes commands, like so:

If you execute proctal without a command, or pass it the -h option, it will print help information which includes a list of all available commands.

Commands can also take options. Every command recognizes the -h option, which will make it print help information related to it and then exit without doing anything else.

For a complete overview of the functionality provided by the tool, you can read the man page by running the following command:

API

The C library can be used by linking to libproctal.so and including proctal.h.

The header file contains comments that provide a complete reference guide for all the exposed symbols.

You will find a complete guide with examples and tutorials at proctal.io.

In addition to the dependencies listed in the Installation section, you will also need:

• Git
• Yuck
• PHP
• Python
• Autoconf
• Automake

Proctal uses the autotools to generate build systems for UNIX like operating systems. This section will not go into too much detail about them but will show you how you can create a development build to tinker with the source code.

First you need to run the bootstrap script. This will fetch some additional libraries for you and also set up the autotools.

At this point you can follow the instructions given in the Installation section but you will most likely want to work strictly inside the project directory. Here's how you would create and compile a build that suppresses optimizations and inserts debugging symbols.

If you modify a source file and run make again it should detect the change and compile again.

You can also run the test suite. Beware that some test cases require higher privileges, which means that you will most likely have to run the following command as root in order for them to pass.

For more details on what else you can do with the autotools go read the manuals over at GNU software.

Found a bug or want to contribute code? Feel free to create an issue or send a pull request on GitLab.

By submitting code as an individual you agree to the Individual Contributor License Agreement. By submitting code as an entity you agree to the Entity Contributor License Agreement. Read the CONTRIBUTING file for more details.

You can also report bugs to [email protected].

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the GNU General Public License is distributed in a file named COPYING. If not, see GNU licenses.