Arm has released the latest update to Arm Development Studio, version 2023.1.
Key technology features newly supported in this release are:
as well as general stability and usability improvements.
Individual components of Development Studio have been updated as follows:
See the Release notes for full details.
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Arm Development Studio 2023.1 is the first public release to support these Armv9.2-A processors. Support is provided throughout the package via:
Example projects are also provided for each processor to help you get started.
Guarded Control Stack (GCS) is an Arm v9-A Architecture extension (FEAT_GCS), where return addresses are written to this stack as well as to the LR, and addresses compared when returning. The GCS can be used to mitigate against ROP attacks to your code base. The functionality is described in the Arm A-Profile Architecture Developments 2022 announcement.
Arm Development Studio 2023.1 adds support for GCS in Arm Compiler for Embedded and the Arm DS Debugger. An example project illustrating its use is also provided.
This screenshot illustrates the scenario before a ROP attack occurs. The LR matches the highlighted value in the GCS (0x800001D0). The new gcs print command lists the entries on the GCS.
A ROP attack is simulated by modifying the value on the GCS.
The RET instruction is executed and an exception is taken.
Alongside general stability improvements, usability of the debugger has been improved.
To facilitate the readability of values in registers, they can be grouped into smaller fields of 2, 3, 4, or 8 characters.
Options have been added to the armdbg command line debugger to facilitate the usage of CMSIS packs. Also commands (--connect-hold-reset and --connect-pre-reset) to control reset pulses emitted from DSTREAM when connecting to target hardware. See the Arm Development Studio documentation for full details.
Additional examples have also been added to the repository to help you get started with your project.
For information on updates made to Arm Streamline, see my colleague's What's new in Arm Mobile Studio 2023.4 blog.
Arm Development Studio installers are available from the Arm Developer website..
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Some users have reported that they are unable to use certain features of Arm Development Studio 2023.1.
The solution is to replace the contents of the sw/mappings folder of your installation with the attached.Do not use these files with other versions of Arm Development Studio.mappings.zip