Build fails due to some issue in unicorn_afl

[nishant412]

I am trying to build AFLplusplus from source following the instructions on here - https://github.com/AFLplusplus/AFLplusplus/blob/stable/docs/INSTALL.md

When I run make distrib it seems to error out during unicorn_mode build stage. Here is what I observed:

[ 94%] Built target sample_x86
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/nb-ap@THP.LOCAL/Tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl/unicorn/build'
make[2]: *** [Makefile:146: all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/nb-ap@THP.LOCAL/Tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl/unicorn/build'
make[1]: *** [Makefile:11: unicorn/build/libunicorn-common.a] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/nb-ap@THP.LOCAL/Tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl'
make: [GNUmakefile:651: distrib] Error 1 (ignored)

Any suggestions on how to resolve this? I am running Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS on a x86_64 machine

Edit : Looking at the output logs better, I realize this is where the errors start

[ 93%] Building C object CMakeFiles/sample_x86.dir/samples/sample_x86.c.o
make[4]: Entering directory '/home/nb-ap@THP.LOCAL/Tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl/unicorn/build'
[ 93%] Building C object CMakeFiles/sample_x86_32_gdt_and_seg_regs.dir/samples/sample_x86_32_gdt_and_seg_regs.c.o
make[4]: Entering directory '/home/nb-ap@THP.LOCAL/Tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl/unicorn/build'
[ 93%] Building C object CMakeFiles/sample_batch_reg.dir/samples/sample_batch_reg.c.o
make[4]: Entering directory '/home/nb-ap@THP.LOCAL/Tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl/unicorn/build'
@syntax error in archive script, line 1
/usr/bin/ar: /home/nb-ap: No such file or directory
@make[4]: *** [CMakeFiles/bundling_target.dir/build.make:73: libunicorn.a] Error 9

I am guessing the arguments to the call to ar don't have quotes correctly, coz it seems to ignore my home directory name after the @ . Where should I edit to fix this?

[vanhauser-thc]

sorry I somehow never saw this issue.
easy fix: build under a different user, e.g. root, and do sudo make install.

also the repo that would need the fix is this one: https://github.com/AFLplusplus/unicornafl

[etibuteau]

I had the same issue and on my side it's caused by the fact that I have a special character in my path because of my user name (user@server) and the ar -M command fails to parse the path correctly during the bundling of the unicorn_archive.

In file unicorn/CMakeFiles/bundling_target.dir/build.make

Line 71 libunicorn.a:
Line 72 @$(CMAKE_COMMAND) -E cmake_echo_color --switch=$(COLOR) --blue --bold --progress-dir=/home/user@server/tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl/build/unicorn/CMakeFiles --progress-num=$(CMAKE_PROGRESS_1) "Bundling unicorn_archive" 
Line 73 /usr/bin/ar -M < /home/user@server/tools/AFLplusplus/unicorn_mode/unicornafl/build/unicorn/unicorn_archive.ar

I assume it's generated by the bundling_target function in unicorn/cmake/bundle_static.cmake called from CMakeLists.txt

Solution, use a symbolic link or compile AFL++ in the /tmp folder