FASM assembly program waits before exiting

Question

This is the code that I use with FASM:

format PE console
entry main

include '..\MACRO\import32.inc'

section '.data' data readable writeable
msg db "привіт!",0dh,0ah,0 ;hi
lcl_set db ?

section '.code' code readable executable
main:
;fail without set locale
push    msg
call    [printf]
 pop    ecx

;succeed with set locale
push msg
call _liapnuty
pop ecx

push 0
call [ExitProcess]

_liapnuty:
push    ebp
 mov    ebp, esp
;sub    esp, 0
 mov    ebx,[ebp+8]  ; 1st arg addr

 mov    al, [lcl_set]
  or    al, al
 jnz    _liapnuty_rest
call    __set_locale

_liapnuty_rest:
push    ebx
call    [printf]
 pop    ebx

 mov    esp, ebp
 pop    ebp
 ret    0

__set_locale:
 mov    al, [lcl_set]
  or    al, al
 jnz    __set_locale_rest

push    1251
call    SetConsoleCP
call    SetConsoleOutputCP
 pop    ecx
 mov    [lcl_set], 1

;push   lcl
;call   [system]
; pop   ecx
; mov   [lcl_set], 1

;push   cls
;call   [printf]
; pop   ecx

__set_locale_rest:
 ret    0


section '.idata' import data readable
library kernel,'kernel32.dll',\
        msvcrt,'msvcrt.dll'

import  kernel,\
        SetConsoleCP,'SetConsoleCP',\
        SetConsoleOutputCP,'SetConsoleOutputCP',\
        ExitProcess,'ExitProcess'

import  msvcrt,\
        printf,'printf'

It works almost perfectly, except that before exiting it waits for like a second for some reason. It outputs data almost instantly, yet it fails to shut down quickly. If the reason is using these libraries or not clearing the stack after calling ExitProcess (which obviously can't be done), then let me know and I will mostly gladly accept this answer, but I want to be 100% sure I'm doing everything correctly.

Have you tried running your code under a profiling tool to see where it's spending time? Is it maybe crashing instead of exiting cleanly? — Peter Cordes, Nov 05 '18 at 02:07

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 05 '18 at 09:58

The reason for all of it was because kernel32 functions pop their parameters themselves on return. If I remove unnecessary pops it starts working fast again. Of course, the program still runs with damaged stack but it does a lot of damage control at the end. That's why it was slow, but still worked. For everyone facing this issue, make sure to be careful with the calling convention.

To debug the application and find the error I used OLLYDBG. It's free and it works. It helps you debug EXEs and DLLs, allowing to step one command at a time. Also it shows the memory, the stack and all of the registers and flags.

Using the stack I was able to find out that it gets corrupted.

FASM assembly program waits before exiting

1 Answers1