Summary

In this chapter, we looked at how the computer works at a lower level than C code: it performs a series of assembly instructions, which are simple actions that convert into processor circuit operations. Assembly is difficult to write but being able to understand it intuitively is useful. So, we covered a lot of material regarding assembly language, and further study is encouraged since assembly language is such a large topic.

We learned that there are calculation, data movement, and control flow instructions in assembly and that the compiler frequently generates unexpected instruction sequences to speed things up. This is one of the reasons we use compilers: they are good at condensing our programs into the shortest possible sequence of instructions.

In the next chapter, we will focus a bit more on assembly language and then we will move on to compilers, tools for shellcode, and more.