EXPLOITATION - Hacking: The Art of Exploitation - page 129

12 auth_flag = 1;
13 if(strcmp(password_buffer, "outgrabe") == 0)
14 auth_flag = 1;
15
16 return auth_flag;
17 }
18
19 int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
20 if(argc < 2) {
(gdb)
21 printf("Usage: %s <password>\n", argv[0]);
22 exit(0);
23 }
24 if(check_authentication(argv[1])) {
25 printf("\n-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\n");
26 printf(" Access Granted.\n");
27 printf("-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\n");
28 } else {
29 printf("\nAccess Denied.\n");
30 }
(gdb) break 24
Breakpoint 1 at 0x80484ab: file auth_overflow2.c, line 24.
(gdb) break 9
Breakpoint 2 at 0x8048421: file auth_overflow2.c, line 9.
(gdb) break 16
Breakpoint 3 at 0x804846f: file auth_overflow2.c, line 16.
(gdb) run AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Starting program: /home/reader/booksrc/a.out AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Breakpoint 1, main (argc=2, argv=0xbffff874) at auth_overflow2.c:24
24 if(check_authentication(argv[1])) {
(gdb) i r esp
esp 0xbffff7e0 0xbffff7e0
(gdb) x/32xw $esp
0xbffff7e0: 0xb8000ce0 0x08048510 0xbffff848 0xb7eafebc
0xbffff7f0: 0x00000002 0xbffff874 0xbffff880 0xb8001898
0xbffff800: 0x00000000 0x00000001 0x00000001 0x00000000
0xbffff810: 0xb7fd6ff4 0xb8000ce0 0x00000000 0xbffff848
0xbffff820: 0x40f5f7f0 0x48e0fe81 0x00000000 0x00000000
0xbffff830: 0x00000000 0xb7ff9300 0xb7eafded 0xb8000ff4
0xbffff840: 0x00000002 0x08048350 0x00000000 0x08048371
0xbffff850: 0x08048474 0x00000002 0xbffff874 0x08048510
( gdb)

The first breakpoint is right before the call to check_authentication()
in main() . At this point, the stack pointer register (ESP) is 0xbffff7e0 , and the
top of the stack is shown. This is all part of main() 's stack frame. Continu-
ing to the next breakpoint inside check_authentication() , the output below
shows ESP is smaller as it moves up the list of memory to make room for
check_authentication() 's stack frame (shown in bold), which is now on the
stack. After finding the addresses of the auth_flag variable ( ) and the variable

password_buffer (

), their locations can be seen within the stack frame.