[NT] Defeating Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Heap Protection and DEP Bypass

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Date: 31 Jan 2005 08:55:31 +0200

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  Defeating Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Heap Protection and DEP Bypass
------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY

The paper linked here suggest a method to defeat Windows XP SP2 heap
protection, and bypassing DEP (Data Execution Prevention).

This technique was successfully tested by MaxPatrol team in trying to
exploit the heap buffer overflow vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows
winhlp32.exe application.

DETAILS

Overview:
Memory protection
Buffer overrun attacks are among the most common mechanisms, or vectors,
for intrusion into computers. In this type of exploit, the attacker sends
a long string to an input stream or control longer than the memory
buffer allocated to hold it. The long string injects code into the system,
which is executed, launching a virus or worm.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 uses two general categories of protection
measures to inhibit buffer-overrun attacks. On CPUs that support it, the
operating system can turn on the execution protection bit for virtual
memory pages that are supposed to hold only data. On all CPUs, the
operating system is now more careful to reduce both stack and heap buffer
overruns, using "sandboxing" techniques.

Execution Protection (NX)
On the 64-bit AMD K8 and Intel Itanium processor families, the CPU
hardware can mark memory with an attribute that indicates that code should
not be executed from that memory. This execution protection (NX) feature
functions on a per-virtual memory page basis, most often changing a bit in
the page table entry to mark the memory page.

On these processors, Windows XP Service Pack 2 uses the execution
protection feature to prevent the execution of code from data pages. When
an attempt is made to run code from a marked data page, the processor
hardware raises an exception immediately and prevents the code from
executing. This prevents attackers from overrunning a data buffer with
code and then executing the code; it would have stopped the Blaster worm
dead in its tracks.

Although the support for this feature is currently limited to 64-bit
processors, Microsoft expects future 32-bit and 64-bit processors to
provide execution protection.

Sandboxing
To help control this type of attack on existing 32-bit processors, Service
Pack 2 adds software checks to the two types of memory storage used by
native code: the stack, and the heap. The stack is used for temporary
local variables with short lifetimes; stack space is automatically
allocated when a function is called and released when the function exits.
The heap is used by programs to dynamically allocate and free memory
blocks that may have longer lifetimes.

The protection added to these two kinds of memory structures is called
sandboxing. To protect the stack, all binaries in the system have been
recompiled using an option that enables stack buffer security checks. A
few instructions added to the calling and return sequences for functions
allow the runtime libraries to catch most stack buffer overruns. This is a
case where a little paranoia goes a long way.

In addition, "cookies" have been added to the heap. These are special
markers at the beginning and ends of allocated buffers, which the runtime
libraries check as memory blocks are allocated and freed. If the cookies
are found to be missing or inconsistent, the runtime libraries know that a
heap buffer overrun has occurred, and raise a software exception.

Download Information:
The paper can be found at:
<http://www.maxpatrol.com/defeating-xpsp2-heap-protection.pdf>
http://www.maxpatrol.com/defeating-xpsp2-heap-protection.pdf

Or in HTML format:
<http://www.maxpatrol.com/defeating-xpsp2-heap-protection.htm>
http://www.maxpatrol.com/defeating-xpsp2-heap-protection.htm

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The original article can be found at:
<http://www.maxpatrol.com/defeating-xpsp2-heap-protection.htm>
http://www.maxpatrol.com/defeating-xpsp2-heap-protection.htm

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