Using GDB to read MSRs

If you prefer not changing your code (or if the code is not available) you could do something similar to amdn's answer in the following way. The call to arch_prctl requires a pointer to a uint64_t, for which I use the address to an empty portion of the stack (8 bytes below the current stack pointer). After the call returns, read the 8 byte value stored at the location.

Constants used: ARCH_GET_FS = 0x1003, ARCH_GET_GS = 0x1004

(gdb) p $rsp
$1 = (void *)0x7fffffffe6f0

(gdb) call arch_prctl(0x1003, $rsp - 0x8)    
$2 = 0 
(gdb) x /gx $rsp - 0x8
0x7fffffffe6e8: 0x00007ffff7fe0700   => IA32_FS_BASE

(gdb) call arch_prctl(0x1004, $rsp - 0x8)
$3 = 0 
(gdb) x /gx $rsp - 0x8
0x7fffffffe6e8: 0x0000000000000000   => IA32_GS_BASE

The x86 MSRs can be read with the RDMSR instruction, which is privileged (Ring 0). In Linux there are system calls that a user thread can invoke to read FS_BASE and GS_BASE. There are no library wrappers for them, so you have to write code to invoke them yourself.

Here's one way to do it in C++, you add these global function definitions to your program:

#include <cstdint>
#include <asm/prctl.h>
#include <sys/syscall.h>
namespace x86 {
    uint64_t fs_base() {
        uint64_t fs_base;
        syscall(SYS_arch_prctl,ARCH_GET_FS,&fs_base);
        return fs_base;
    }
    uint64_t gs_base() {
        uint64_t gs_base;
        syscall(SYS_arch_prctl,ARCH_GET_GS,&gs_base);
        return gs_base;
    }
}

Now you can call these functions from gdb and print their return value in hex, like this:

(gdb) p/x x86::fs_base()
$1 = 0x7ffff5e01780
(gdb) p/x x86::gs_base()
$2 = 0x0
(gdb)

Since gdb 8 the registers $fs_base and $gs_base are also available. These work in code dumps too, not just live programs.