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Thread: Defeating Exploits

  1. #1
    Senior Member tampabay420's Avatar
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    Defeating Exploits

    This is a pretty interesting Paper, some nice ideas. Well explained ;-)
    Defeating Exploits
    **************
    The ideas in this "paper" present a method for defeating exploits; not the
    actual vulnerability. Before getting to the details let's consider slammer
    (again).

    What made slammer so successful?
    The overriding factor that made slammer so successful was it's ability to
    spread. What made it's spread a foregone conclusion was the fact that every
    vulnerable SQL Server/MSDE had a "jmp esp" instruction at address
    0x42B0C9DC. This was the address that was used to gain control of the SQL
    Server's path of execution to a point where the worm's payload, the
    "arbitrary code", would be executed.

    This address is in a dynamic link library (DLL) , sqlsort.dll which has an
    "image base" of 0x42AE0000.

    Every image file, DLL or executable, has an "Image Base" and this base is
    the preferred location where the file should be loaded into memory by the
    Windows Loader. [I don't want to digress, here, as to what happens if
    there's a conflict. See the references at the end.] Now if this Image Base
    on one particular system had been 0x42AF0000 then the worm would have failed
    to infect this particular box; the "jmp esp" instruction that should've been
    at 0x42B0C9DC on this system would be found at 0x42B1C9DC so the worm would
    have been off target. The SQL Server running on this system, whilst still
    being "vulnerable" to the buffer overflow vulnerability would have been
    invulnerable to this worm. Sure - the SQL Server may have crashed - but it
    would not have been compromised.

    It's like sickle cell. Someone born with the gene that causes sickle cell
    anaemia, a blood disorder that affects many people of a West African origin,
    or carriers of the gene, sickle cell trait, do not suffer from the ill
    affects of malaria, a disease caused by a parasite and most commonly spread
    by mosquitoes. Whilst someone with sickle cell trait can still catch
    malaria, the gene mutates the haemoglobin in their blood in such a way that
    they are invulnerable to the debilitating side effects and syptoms of the
    disease such as mental confusion, coma and death. There is an obvious
    evolutionary advantage to sickle cell trait; remember that the evolution of
    the species cares not about how long a person lives, only that they live
    long enough to pass on their genes. (Those with anaemia may suffer from
    crises, periods of acute pain so the trade off is somewhat questionable.)

    In areas where malaria is a common cause of death, being a carrier of the
    sick cell gene can help ensure that this person lives long enough to have
    progeny. This is Darwinian natural selection in progress.

    Rebasing
    *******
    The problem with operating systems is that they all have pretty much the
    same "genetic code" which makes each and every one of them vulnerable to a
    new exploit. So we need to make them different and this can be achieved
    through rebasing. Rebasing is the process of changing the Image Base of an
    image file. By doing this the DLL/EXE is loaded into a different location in
    the virtual address space.

    Going back to Slammer, had I have rebased sqlsort.dll giving it a new base
    of 0x41410000 my box would have been invulnerable to the worm. If another
    worm were written, though, that used an address that contained a "jmp esp"
    instruction in kernel32.dll then I would be vulnerable. So I rebase
    kernel32.dll. But then another worm uses another DLL so I rebase that one,
    too. Eventually I've rebased all of the DLLs used by SQL Server mutating
    it's "genetic code", making it considerably different to any other SQL
    Server install on the planet. In fact if I rebase every DLL on my system and
    every executable then I can make my box almost invulnerable to a given
    exploit, past, present or future. It's not that my box is invulnerable to a
    buffer overflow vulnerability - it's just invulnerable to the exploits for
    it. To gain control of a system protected in such a way
    would require that the author of the exploit know the location of loaded
    DLLs.

    So how easy is it to rebase DLLs and executables? Very. Microsoft have
    provided a function to do this, ReBaseImage(), exported by imagehlp.dll. If
    you rebase an image the new base must be on a 64K boundary - i.e. if the
    image base mod 64000 !=0 the base is not valid.

    The only other problem is Windows File Protection. Once you've rebased a
    copy of the DLL you need to copy the new DLL over the old one but Windows
    File Protection won't allow you to do this. To get around the problem use
    the MoveFileEx and specifying the MOVEFILE_DELAY_UNTIL_REBOOT flag. Doing
    this will add a registry value, "PendingFileRenameOperations" to
    HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\. You then need to add
    another DWORD value "AllowProtectedRenames" and set it to 1. Then restart
    the system. On reboot the new DLLs, with their new image bases, will be
    loaded. For example - here is sample output of listdlls after kernel32.dll
    and ws2_32.dll have been rebased.


    Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Mark Russinovich
    http://www.sysinternals.com

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    --
    WINLOGON.EXE pid: 208
    Command line: winlogon.exe

    Base Size Version Path
    0x01000000 0x2e000 \??\C:\WINNT\system32\winlogon.exe
    0x77f80000 0x7b000 5.00.2195.5400 C:\WINNT\System32\ntdll.dll
    0x78000000 0x46000 6.01.9359.0000 C:\WINNT\system32\MSVCRT.dll
    0x4a4a0000 0xb1000 5.00.2195.6011 C:\WINNT\system32\KERNEL32.dll
    0x77db0000 0x5b000 5.00.2195.5992 C:\WINNT\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
    0x77d30000 0x71000 5.00.2195.5419 C:\WINNT\system32\RPCRT4.dll
    0x54530000 0x13000 5.00.2195.4874 C:\WINNT\system32\WS2_32.dll
    ..
    ..

    Now all the way through this I've been saying things like "almost
    invulnerable" etc. Here's the reason. For some vulnerabilities it may be
    sufficient to overwrite a saved return address, function pointer or whatever
    by only a few bytes. For example assume a saved return address is 0x44784500
    and at address 0x44784536 is a "jmp ebx" instruction and ebx points to our
    code. Then we only need to overwrite the saved return address by 1 byte -
    with 0x36. So knowledge of the DLL load address is not needed. However, this
    scenario is going to happen so infrequently (if ever) that it does not
    detract from the idea of rebasing your system. There may other ways to
    bypass this method.

    Some ideas to further help prevent exploits from working.

    Use addresses such as 0x**000000 or 0x00**0000 for the new image base. With
    there being a NULL in much of the image's address space this will help.
    (This of course won't make a difference with unicode overflows)

    Ensure at least one (core) DLL has a base of 0x00119400 . This will ensure
    that a common stack location 0x00120000 has been assigned forcing the OS to
    chose another location for the stack. You get the idea.

    Feel free to mail me/lists with comments.

    Cheers,
    David Litchfield
    NGSSoftware Ltd
    http://www.ngssoftware.com/


    MSDN Info
    ReBaseImage()
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...us/debug/base/
    rebaseimage.asp
    MoveFileEx()
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...us/fileio/base
    /movefileex.asp
    sorry about no src link, it's vulnwatch email service...
    yeah, I\'m gonna need that by friday...

  2. #2
    That's an awesome article. I am not worthy. I am not worthy=0)
    There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don\'t.

  3. #3
    Senior Member cwk9's Avatar
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    Great find. One question though, does rebasing screw up some patching systems?
    Its not software piracy. I’m just making multiple off site backups.

  4. #4
    Master-Jedi-Pimps0r & Moderator thehorse13's Avatar
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    Rebasing system DLLs is tricky business. Although they include relocation information they also make certain assumptions about where in memory they will be loaded. If you rebase some of the system DLLs, your system will become unstable or will fail to start. Also, many EXEs do not include relocation and since EXEs are loaded first they are not supposed to be relocated in normal operation. You will not be able to rebase them either.

    This is just an addition to your outstanding article.
    Our scars have the power to remind us that our past was real. -- Hannibal Lecter.
    Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful. -- John Wooden

  5. #5
    AO Ancient: Team Leader
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    Additionally - and I am only really guessing here 'cos this is a little out of my knowledge area - this would result in an un-infected machine but also a high probability of total denial of service, (possibly a complete machine hang), until the machine is rebooted - or am I completely off base with that?
    Don\'t SYN us.... We\'ll SYN you.....
    \"A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.\" - Thucydides

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