This repository contains a comprehensive analysis of binary exploitation with a focus on memory corruption vulnerabilities. The analysis investigates software products actively targeted, vulnerability classes commonly exploited, and exploit mitigation technologies on the horizon. It provides demonstrations using various code snippets for context with binary exploitation and specifically memory corruption.
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Binary Exploitation Notes https://ir0nstone.gitbook.io/notes
MITRE ATT&CK https://attack.mitre.org/
URLhaus https://urlhaus.abuse.ch/statistics
Intezer Analyze https://analyze.intezer.com/scan
Joe Sandbox https://www.joesandbox.com/analysispaged/0
Any.Run https://any.run/malware-trends/
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https://github.com/alexandreborges/malwoverview
Binary exploitation is a critical aspect of cybersecurity that involves understanding binary executable workings and exploiting vulnerabilities within them. Memory corruption is a common attack vector where unauthorized access is gained by overwriting memory with malicious code that is then executed by the system. This analysis explores various aspects of binary exploitation and memory corruption vulnerabilities necessary to gain an appreciation and understanding of how to defend against them.
The analysis discusses software products that are actively targeted for binary exploitation, including:
- Unsafe programming languages like Go, Rust, Swift, and Python
- Containerization software products such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Swarm
- Embedded software product types like operating systems, applications, firmware, and network protocols
Code snippets are provided to demonstrate how memory corruption vulnerabilities can be exploited in these software products necessary to gain an appreciation and understanding of how to defend against them.
The analysis examines the primary vulnerability classes commonly exploited today, such as buffer overflow and underflow, buffer overread and underread, integer overflow and underflow, off-by-one error, type confusion, format string bug, and use-after-free. Variations of these vulnerabilities are also discussed, including double free, invalid free, mismatched free, use of uninitialized variable, wild pointer dereference, and null pointer dereference. C language code snippets are provided to illustrate how each of these vulnerabilities can manifest in code necessary to gain an appreciation and understanding of how to defend against them.
The analysis explores new exploit mitigation technologies on the horizon, such as:
- Speculation-based control flow integrity
- Byte-granularity heap randomization
- Intra-kernel sandboxing
These technologies show promise in addressing memory corruption vulnerabilities found in unsafe programming languages, containerization, and embedded devices. A summary of existing exploit mitigation technologies, including address space layout randomization (ASLR), data execution prevention (DEP), stack protector, heap spray mitigation, and position-independent executable (PIE), is also provided for context.
Binary exploitation remains a significant threat, and memory corruption vulnerabilities continue to be a primary attack vector. Understanding and defending against binary exploitation is crucial in today's cybersecurity landscape. By staying informed about actively targeted software products, commonly exploited vulnerability classes, and emerging exploit mitigation technologies, cybersecurity professionals can better defend against these attacks and secure their systems. Further research and analysis in this area will be essential to keep pace with the evolving threat landscape.
The analysis includes a comprehensive list of references that support the research and findings presented.
This analsyis is significant because it provides a comprehensive overview of binary exploitation and memory corruption vulnerabilities, which are critical aspects of cybersecurity. By understanding the software products actively targeted, vulnerability classes commonly exploited, and new exploit mitigation technologies on the horizon, cybersecurity professionals can better defend against these attacks and secure their systems. The article serves as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and students interested in binary exploitation and memory corruption vulnerabilities.
Disclaimer This repository is intended for educational and research purposes.