Hacking C++ ARM 64 (Part 8 - Hacking Basic I/O)

For a complete table of contents of all the lessons please click below as it will give you a brief of each lesson in addition to the topics it will cover. https://github.com/mytechnotalent/hacking_c-_arm64

Today we hack the input validation from our last lesson.

Let's fire up radare2 in write mode.

radare2 -w ./0x02_asm_64_basicio

Let's auto analyze.

aaa

Seek to main.

s main

View disassembly.

v

Let's get back to the terminal view.

q

Let's look at the visual graph and begin with the first b.ne which under the proper expected conditions it will only accept a valid integer between 0 and 100 as we demonstrated in the last lecture.

The b.ne meaning branch if not equal. The assembly before it simply does not matter in this case as we know if we leave b.ne as is the input validation will be in tact.

We need to disable this input validation by changing that instruction to a b.eq or branch if equal.

Let's look at that code block.

We see that it if it is true, meaning validation is correct and we have an integer between 0 and 100 we will follow the true green line to the next function.

If we fail the validation we will be sent to the false condition to obtain new input.

Let's q to a terminal prompt.

qq

Let's seek to the statement we want to hack.

[0x000010a4]> s 0x000010c4

Let's now hack the branch as discussed.

[0x000010c4]> wa b.eq 0x1214
Written 4 byte(s) (b.eq 0x1214) = wx 800a0054
[0x000010c4]>

Let's quit.

q

Now when we run the binary it will simply ignore any input at all let alone input validation and simply arrive at the desired point.

kali@kali:~/Documents/0x02_asm_64_basicio$ ./0x02_asm_64_basicio
Your are 0 years old, seems legit!
kali@kali:~/Documents/0x02_asm_64_basicio$

Even though 0 is valid it is simply an unstable value that happened to be in one of the registers that the program expected to be properly assigned during a normal program flow. Here we were able to change the binary permanently to accomplish our hack.

These are VERY simple examples however when you combine these as you progress you will literally be able to Reverse Engineer anything.

In our next lesson we will discuss the char primitive data type.