Announcements:

• Project 1 is out: part I due Apr. 8.

• Please come to section tomorrow at 3:30pm PT (on zoom)

Control Hijacking

Basic Control
Hijacking Attacks
Dan Boneh
 Control hijacking attacks
• Attacker’s goal:
Take over target machine (e.g. web server)
• Execute arbitrary code on target by hijacking
application control flow

• Examples:
– Buffer overflow and integer overflow attacks
– Format string vulnerabilities
– Use after free
Dan Boneh
 First example: buffer overflows
Extremely common bug in C/C++ programs.
• First major exploit: 1988 Internet Worm. Fingerd.

Whenever possible avoid C/C++

Often cannot avoid C/C++ :

• Need to understand
attacks and defenses

Source: web.nvd.nist.gov
Dan Boneh
 What is needed
• Understanding C functions, the stack, and the heap.
• Know how system calls are made
• The exec() system call

• Attacker needs to know which CPU and OS used on the target machine:
– Our examples are for x86 running Linux or Windows
– Details vary slightly between CPUs and OSs:
• Stack Frame structure (Unix vs. Windows, x86 vs. ARM)
• Little endian vs. big endian
Dan Boneh
 Linux process memory layout (x86_64)

0x0000 7FFF FFFF FFFF (128 TB)

user stack
%rsp
(stack pointer)

shared libraries
0x0000 7F1F6 XXXX XXXX

run time heap

Loaded text and data
from executable 0x0000 0000 0040 0040
unused
0
Dan Boneh
 Stack Frame
high

arguments

return address
rbp stack base pointer
exception handlers
Stack
local variables Growth
rsp callee saved registers
low
(esp in 32-bit mode)
Dan Boneh
 What are buffer overflows?
Suppose a web server contains a function: void func(char *str) {
char buf[128];
After func() is called stack looks like:
strcpy(buf, str);
do-something(buf);
argument: str }
return address
stack base pointer

char buf[128]

rsp
Dan Boneh
 What are buffer overflows?
What if *str is 136 bytes long? void func(char *str) {
After strcpy: char buf[128];
strcpy(buf, str);
do-something(buf);
argument: str }
return address
stack base pointer Poisoned return address!
*str
Problem:
char buf[128] no bounds checking in strcpy()
rsp
Dan Boneh
 Stack
Basic stack exploit
high
Suppose *str is such that Program P
after strcpy stack looks like:

Program P: exec(“/bin/sh”)
(exact shell code by Aleph One)
return address

When func() exits, the user gets shell ! char buf[128]

Note: attack code P runs in stack.
low
Dan Boneh
 Stack
The NOP slide high
Program P
Problem: how does attacker
determine ret-address?
NOP Slide

Solution: NOP slide

return address
• Guess approximate stack state
when func() is called
• Insert many NOPs before program P:
char buf[128]
nop (0x90) , xor eax,eax , inc ax
low
Dan Boneh
 Details and examples
• Some complications:
– Program P should not contain the ‘\0’ character.
– Overflow should not crash program before func() exits.

• (in)Famous remote stack smashing overflows:

– Overflow in Windows animated cursors (ANI). LoadAniIcon()
– Buffer overflow in Symantec virus detection (May 2016)

overflow when parsing PE headers … kernel vuln.

Dan Boneh
 Many unsafe libc functions
strcpy (char *dest, const char *src)
strcat (char *dest, const char *src)
gets (char *s)
scanf ( const char *format, … ) and many more.
• “Safe” libc versions strncpy(), strncat() are misleading
– e.g. strncpy() may leave string unterminated.

• Windows C run time (CRT):

– strcpy_s (*dest, DestSize, *src): ensures proper termination
Dan Boneh
 Buffer overflow opportunities
• Exception handlers: (… more on this in a bit)
– Overwrite the address of an exception handler in stack frame.

• Function pointers: (e.g. PHP 4.0.2, MS MediaPlayer Bitmaps)

Heap
buf[128] FuncPtr or
stack
– Overflowing buf will override function pointer.

• Longjmp buffers: longjmp(pos) (e.g. Perl 5.003)

– Overflowing buf next to pos overrides value of pos. Dan Boneh
 Heap exploits: corrupting virtual tables
Compiler generated function pointers (e.g. C++ code)

FP1 method #1
vptr FP2 method #2
FP3
method #3
data vtable

Object T NOP shell

slide code
After overflow of buf :

vptr

data
buf[256] vtable

object T Dan Boneh

An example: exploiting the browser heap
Request web page

Web page with exploit

victim browser malicious web server

Attacker’s goal is to infect browsers visiting the web site

• How: send javascript to browser that exploits a heap overflow

Dan Boneh
 A reliable exploit?
<SCRIPT language="text/javascript">
shellcode = unescape("%u4343%u4343%..."); // allocate in heap
overflow-string = unescape(“%u2332%u4276%...”);
cause-overflow(overflow-string ); // overflow buf[ ]
</SCRIPT>

Problem: attacker does not know where browser

places shellcode on the heap
???

data
buf[256] vtable

ptr
shellcode
Dan Boneh
 Heap Spraying [SkyLined]

Idea: 1. use Javascript to spray heap

with shellcode (and NOP slides)
2. then point vtable ptr anywhere in spray area

NOP slide shellcode

heap
vtable

heap spray area

Dan Boneh
 Javascript heap spraying
var nop = unescape(“%u9090%u9090”)
while (nop.length < 0x100000) nop += nop;

var shellcode = unescape("%u4343%u4343%...");

var x = new Array ()

for (i=0; i<1000; i++) {
x[i] = nop + shellcode;
}

Pointing function-ptr almost anywhere in heap will

cause shellcode to execute.
Dan Boneh
 Ad-hoc heap overflow mitigations
• Better browser architecture:
– Store JavaScript strings in a separate heap from browser heap

• OpenBSD and Windows 8 heap overflow protection:

prevents
cross-page
overflows

guard pages (non-writable pages in virtual memory)

In theory: allocate every object on a separate page (eFence, Archipelago’08)

⟹ not practical: too wasteful in physical memory
Dan Boneh
 Finding overflows by fuzzing
• To find overflow:
– Run web server on local machine
– Use AFL to issue malformed requests (ending with “$$$$$” )
• Fuzzers: automated tools for this (next week)
– If web server crashes,
search core dump for “$$$$$” to find overflow location

• Construct exploit (not easy given latest defenses in next lecture)

Dan Boneh
Control Hijacking

More Control
Hijacking Attacks
Dan Boneh
 More Hijacking Opportunities
• Integer overflows: (e.g. MS DirectX MIDI Lib)
• Double free: double free space on heap
– Can cause memory mgr to write data to specific location
– Examples: CVS server
• Use after free: using memory after it is freed
• Format string vulnerabilities

Dan Boneh
 Integer Overflows (see Phrack 60)

Problem: what happens when int exceeds max value?

int m; (32 bits) short s; (16 bits) char c; (8 bits)

c = 0x80 + 0x80 = 128 + 128 ⇒ c=0

s = 0xff80 + 0x80 ⇒ s=0
m = 0xffffff80 + 0x80 ⇒ m=0

Can this be exploited? Dan Boneh

 An example
void func( char *buf1, *buf2, unsigned int len1, len2) {
char temp[256];
if (len1 + len2 > 256) {return -1} // length check
memcpy(temp, buf1, len1); // cat buffers
memcpy(temp+len1, buf2, len2);
do-something(temp); // do stuff
}

What if len1 = 0x80, len2 = 0xffffff80 ?

⇒ len1+len2 = 0
Second memcpy() will overflow heap !! Dan Boneh
An example: a better length check
void func( char *buf1, *buf2, unsigned int len1, len2) {
char temp[256];
// length check
if (len1 > 256) || (len2 > 256) || (len+ len2 > 256)
return -1;
memcpy(temp, buf1, len1); // cat buffers
memcpy(temp+len1, buf2, len2);
do-something(temp); // do stuff
}

Dan Boneh
 Integer overflow exploit stats
700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 ⋯ 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Dec. 2020: integer underflow in F5 Big IP

if (8190 − nlen <= vlen ) // length check
return -1;
Source: NVD/CVE Dan Boneh
Format string bugs

Dan Boneh
 Format string problem
int func(char *user) {
fprintf(stderr, user);
}

Problem: what if *user = “%s%s%s%s%s%s%s” ??

– Most likely program will crash: DoS.
– If not, program will print memory contents. Privacy?
– Full exploit using user = “%n”

Correct form: fprintf( stdout, “%s”, user);

Dan Boneh
 Vulnerable functions
Any function using a format string.

Printing:
printf, fprintf, sprintf, …
vprintf, vfprintf, vsprintf, …

Logging:
syslog, err, warn

Dan Boneh
 Exploit
• Dumping arbitrary memory:
– Walk up stack until desired pointer is found.
– printf( “%08x.%08x.%08x.%08x|%s|”)

• Writing to arbitrary memory:

– printf( “hello %n”, &temp) -- writes ‘6’ into temp.
– printf( “%08x.%08x.%08x.%08x.%n”)
Dan Boneh
Use after free exploits

Dan Boneh
High impact security vulns. in Chrome 2015 – 2020 (C++)

70% due to memory management bugs

Dan Boneh
IE11 Example: CVE-2014-0282 (simplified)
<form id="form"> (IE11 written in C++)
<textarea id="c1" name="a1" ></textarea>
<input id="c2" type="text" name="a2” value="val">
</form> Loop on form elements:
c1.DoReset()
<script> c2.DoReset()
function changer() {
document.getElementById("form").innerHTML = "";
CollectGarbage(); // erase c1 and c2 fields
}

document.getElementById("c1").onpropertychange = changer;
document.getElementById("form").reset();
</script> Dan Boneh
 What just happened?
c1.doReset() causes changer() to be called and free object c2

object c2 FP1 doSomething

vptr FP2 doReset
FP3
doSomethingElse
data vtable

Dan Boneh
 What just happened?
c1.doReset() causes changer() to be called and free object c2

object c2 FP1
vptr FP2 ShellCode
FP3
data vtable
Use after free !

Suppose attacker allocates a string of same size as vtable

When c2.DoReset() is called, attacker gets shell

Dan Boneh
 The exploit
<script>
function changer() {
document.getElementById(”form").innerHTML = "";
CollectGarbage();

--- allocate string object to occupy vtable location ---

}

document.getElementById("c1").onpropertychange = changer;
document.getElementById("form").reset();
</script>

Lesson: use after free can be a serious security vulnerability !!

Dan Boneh
Next lecture …

DEFENSES

Dan Boneh
THE END

Dan Boneh
 References on heap spraying
[1] Heap Feng Shui in Javascript,
by A. Sotirov, Blackhat Europe 2007

[2] Engineering Heap Overflow Exploits with JavaScript

M. Daniel, J. Honoroff, and C. Miller, WooT 2008

[3] Interpreter Exploitation: Pointer inference and JiT spraying,

by Dion Blazakis

Dan Boneh