these are my notes after finishing the GDB module from pwn.college. This covered the essential toolkit—the basic commands for navigating execution, inspecting memory, and beginning analysis. It's the critical first step in going from randomly guessing to strategically interrogating a program.

• extra great ressource for pwn and RE courses: p.ost2.fyi

The expert in anything was once a beginner. What looks like magic to you is simply the result of practice you haven't done yet. !

1. Execution Control

run / r

• Purpose: Starts your program from the beginning under GDB's control.

• Syntax: run [arguments] or r [arguments]

• Key Points:

  • Must specify the program first with gdb ./program or the file command.
  • Pass command-line arguments directly after the command.
  • If the program is already running, run will ask if you want to restart it.

• Example:

  (gdb) file ./my_app
  (gdb) run arg1 arg2
  Starting program: /home/user/my_app arg1 arg2
  ...program output...
  

continue / c / fg

• Purpose: Resumes program execution after it has been stopped (e.g., by a breakpoint or signal). It continues until the next breakpoint, signal, or program exit.
• Syntax: continue [ignore-count]
• Key Points:
  • fg is a synonym (foreground).
  • The optional ignore-count tells GDB to ignore the next breakpoint n times.
• Example:

Breakpoint 1, main () at main.c:10
10 int x = 5;
(gdb) continue 2 # Will ignore the next breakpoint here twice
Continuing.

2. Information & Inspection