gef: heap arenas NoneType + heap-view doesn’t find heap

• Did you use the latest version of GEF from dev branch?
• Is your bug specific to GEF (not GDB)? - Try to reproduce it running gdb -nx
• Did you search through the documentation first?
• Did you check issues (including the closed ones) - and the PR?

Step 1: Describe your environment

• Operating System / Distribution: 5.15.49-1-MANJARO
• Architecture: amd64
• GEF version (including the Python library version) run version in GEF.

gef➤  version
GEF: (Standalone)
Blob Hash(/home/raven/.gef-430d9d3f7efab6e55215c07bd1694c3a4c4cb6cd.py): 0653da00ca754d9580d60a330907c988d6468dee
SHA256(/home/raven/.gef-430d9d3f7efab6e55215c07bd1694c3a4c4cb6cd.py): f14771fa2cafaf7bca7f8b2a53db54c85f6612f42ac8ff80aaaa476fd7553e69
GDB: 12.1
GDB-Python: 3.10

Step 2: Describe your problem

Steps to reproduce

1. gdb -q ./a.out
2. start
3. break *puts
4. c
5. Check heap

Minimalist test case

// test.c
// clang test.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>


int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  void *p = malloc(0x64);
  void *r = malloc(0x28);
  void *q = malloc(0x64);

  puts("Just some filler content to break on");
  fflush(stdout);

  return 0;
}

Observed Results

gef➤  heap chunks
Chunk(addr=0x555555559010, size=0x290, flags=PREV_INUSE)
    [0x0000555555559010     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    ................]
Chunk(addr=0x5555555592a0, size=0x70, flags=PREV_INUSE)
    [0x00005555555592a0     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    ................]
Chunk(addr=0x555555559310, size=0x30, flags=PREV_INUSE)
    [0x0000555555559310     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    ................]
Chunk(addr=0x555555559340, size=0x70, flags=PREV_INUSE)
    [0x0000555555559340     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    ................]
Chunk(addr=0x5555555593b0, size=0x410, flags=PREV_INUSE)
    [0x00005555555593b0     4a 75 73 74 20 73 6f 6d 65 20 66 69 6c 6c 65 72    Just some filler]
Chunk(addr=0x5555555597c0, size=0x20850, flags=PREV_INUSE)
    [0x00005555555597c0     00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    ................]
gef➤  heap arenas
Arena(base=0x7ffff7f8a400, top=0x0, last_remainder=0x0, next=0x0, next_free=0x0, system_mem=0x0)
[!] Command 'heap arenas' failed to execute properly, reason: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'cast'
gef➤  heap-view
[!] The heap has not been initialized
gef➤  vis
[!] The heap has not been initialized
gef➤  

What happened? This could be a description, log output, etc.

• heap arenas throws an unexpected error.
  • Culprit (s. traces below)
• heap-view fails as arenas.top is still 0x0, which always leads to the error path shown above
  • Culprit (no trace available)

Expected results

• heap arenas should not throw an error on a pointer deref 😄
• heap-view should properly recognize the arena so visualization can take place

Traces