Corelan Exploit Development - Advanced

Abstract
This “ADVANCED” exploit development class is a fast-paced, mind-bending, hands-on course
where you will learn advanced exploit development techniques from an experienced exploit
developer. During this course, students will get the opportunity to learn how to write exploits
that bypass modern memory protections for the Win32 platform, using Windows 7 and
Windows 10 as the example platform, but using techniques that can be applied to other
operating systems an applications. We will discuss differences between Windows 7 and
Windows 10 and explore previously undocumented techniques to achieve important
exploitation primitives in Windows 10. The trainer will share his “notes from the field” and
various tips & tricks to become more effective at writing exploits.
This is most certainly not an entry level course. In fact, this is a one of the finest and most
advanced courses you will find on Win32 exploit development.
This hardcore, practical, hands-on course will provide students with solid understanding of x86
Windows heap exploitation. We make sure the course material is kept updated with current
evolutions, includes previously undocumented tricks and techniques, and details about
research we performed ourselves, so you can apply the research techniques on other
applications and operating system versions. Combined with the way the course is built up, this
will turn this class into a truly unique learning experience.
During all of our courses, we don’t just focus on techniques and mechanics, but we also want to
make sure you understand why a given technique is used, why something works and why
something doesn’t work. In the advanced course, we also provide you with insights on how to
do your own research related with heap exploitation in general (not just Windows 7 or
Windows 10)
The new 2019 edition of the course is based on Windows 7 and Windows 10. (As the Windows
10 Heap Manager contains additional mitigations, we use Windows 7 first to teach the basics,
and then use Windows 10 later on)
Learning Objectives
• Familiarize yourself with the basics of exploit development. Learn to write exploits for
saved return pointer overwrites and abuse SEH records with your eyes closed.
Understanding how heap spraying works, and why it works. If exploitation still a black
box for you, this is the next step.
• If you’ve taken the Bootcamp or other commercial courses on exploit development this
is the next phase.
• Learn modern techniques to exploit applications on Windows 7/10.
• Learn the fine art of writing browser exploits.
• Learn the skills to investigate heap managers on modern Windows versions (Win10) and
find your own exploitation primitives.
• Learn what (generic) questions to ask (rather than being spoonfed exploit-specific
solutions & answers).
• Learn to write ROP chains blindfolded. (It is fundamentally important that you have
practical experience with constructing/writing your own ROP chain!)
• Be ready to suffer and bleed, absorb new knowledge fast and not intimidated by
debuggers and assembly instructions…

Target Audience
Pentesters, auditors, network/system administrators, reverse engineers, malware analysts,
developers, members of a security department, security enthusiasts, or anyone that has a solid
and practical basic knowledge of exploit development for Windows already.

Course Outline

ASLR & DEP Refresher

• Bypassing ASLR

• Bypassing DEP

WinDBG

• Introduction to WinDBG
Windows Heap Management

• Terminology & building blocks

• Windows 7 Heap, Windows 10 Heap (“NT” and “Segment” heap)

• Front-End-ALlocator and Back-End-Allocator

• Differences between Windows 7 and Windows 10

• Heap manipulation primitives

Heap Spraying

• Basic mechanisms

• Data & object spraying

• Precise heap spraying

Heap Exploitation

• Use-After-Free

• Linear & non-linear overflows / controlled write

• Double Free

• Type confusion

• Use of uninitialized memory

• Memory leaks / Information Disclosure

• Heap Manipulations and heap primitives

Modern userland memory protection mechanisms

• Overview of memory protection evolutions

Finding your own bugs

• Thoughts & experiences on fuzzing

REQUIREMENTS

Student Machine/ Laptop Requirements

• A laptop (no netbook) with vmware workstation/virtualbox and enough processing

• 2 Virtual machines installed (Windows 7 SP1, Kali Linux)

Note : you will receive the exact installation instructions after registration,
so don’t start installling the VMs yet.
Students Knowledge Pre-Requisites:

Students should

• be able to read simple C code and simple scripts

• Truly master all basic concepts of exploit development, as listed in our

• be familiar with ROP

• be familiar with writing python/ruby/html/javascript scripts

• be ready to dive into a debugger and read asm for hours and hours and hours

• be ready to think out of the box and have a strong desire to learn

• be fluent with managing Windows / Linux operating system and with using vmware
workstation/virtualbox

• be familiar with using Metasploit and writing exploit modules for Metasploit

• be familiar with using debuggers

• have basic knowledge of assembly