x86 Assembly Flow Graphing

What is this?

This is a plugin for Obsidian that converts x86 assembly into a flow diagram using Obsidian Canvases

Usage

This plugin adds a command called x86-create-flow-diagram. To use this plugin you must highlight a valid x86 code block (without the ``` at the start and end) and run the command.

This plugin requires a specific format for the assembly in order to properly generate nodes and edges for the flow graph.

The key format features are as a follows:

1. All instructions must be indeneted
2. Location for jumps must have no spaces before the location name
3. jmp instruction must be used for unconditional jumps (1 branch)
4. any other instruction beginning with a j is treated as a conditional jump (2 branches)
5. all jump instructions must take only 1 argument and that must be the location name (jmp location1)

This is an example of a valid x86 code block for use with this plugin

    cmp [ebp+var_8], 1
    jz loc_401027
    cmp [ebp+var_8], 2
    jz loc_40103D
    cmp [ebp+var_8], 3
    jz loc_401053
    jmp loc_401058
loc_401027
    Code for case 1
    jmp loc_401058
loc_40103D
    Code for case 2
    jmp loc_401058
loc_401053
    Code for case 3
loc_401058
    Program end

running x86-create-flow-diagram on the above codeblock would result in the following graph being produced in the same directory as the current note:

It won't look as nice as this at first, all of the blocks will be mixed up and you'll have to drag them around to make it look pretty. I'm working on doing this a little better...

Plugin in practice

Roadmap

TODO:

• Add true/false labels to edges
• Handle ``` characters on both sides of selected text
• Move nodes to left or right to increase readbility (kinda)
• Insert Link to graph below codeblock
• Test, test, test...

I'm on buy meacoffee!