book

Practical Binary Analysis

by Dennis Andriesse

December 2018

Beginner to intermediate

456 pages

12h 45m

English

No Starch Press

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What Is Binary Analysis, and Why Do You Need It?What Makes Binary Analysis Challenging?Who Should Read This Book?What’s in This Book?How to Use This Book
1.1 The C Compilation Process1.2 Symbols and Stripped Binaries1.3 Disassembling a Binary1.4 Loading and Executing a Binary1.5 SummaryExercises
2.1 The Executable Header2.2 Section Headers2.3 Sections2.4 Program Headers2.5 SummaryExercises
3.1 The MS-DOS Header and MS-DOS Stub3.2 The PE Signature, File Header, and Optional Header3.3 The Section Header Table3.4 Sections3.5 SummaryExercises
4.1 What Is libbfd?4.2 A Simple Binary-Loading Interface4.3 Implementing the Binary Loader4.4 Testing the Binary Loader4.5 SummaryExercises
5.1 Resolving Identity Crises Using file5.2 Using ldd to Explore Dependencies5.3 Viewing File Contents with xxd5.4 Parsing the Extracted ELF with readelf5.5 Parsing Symbols with nm5.6 Looking for Hints with strings5.7 Tracing System Calls and Library Calls with strace and ltrace5.8 Examining Instruction-Level Behavior Using objdump5.9 Dumping a Dynamic String Buffer Using gdb5.10 SummaryExercise
6.1 Static Disassembly6.2 Dynamic Disassembly6.3 Structuring Disassembled Code and Data6.4 Fundamental Analysis Methods6.5 Effects of Compiler Settings on Disassembly6.6 SummaryExercises
7.1 Bare-Metal Binary Modification Using Hex Editing7.2 Modifying Shared Library Behavior Using LD_PRELOAD7.3 Injecting a Code Section7.4 Calling Injected Code7.5 SummaryExercises
8.1 Why Write a Custom Disassembly Pass?8.2 Introduction to Capstone8.3 Implementing a ROP Gadget Scanner8.4 SummaryExercises
9.1 What Is Binary Instrumentation?9.2 Static Binary Instrumentation9.3 Dynamic Binary Instrumentation9.4 Profiling with Pin9.5 Automatic Binary Unpacking with Pin9.6 SummaryExercises
10.1 What Is DTA?10.2 DTA in Three Steps: Taint Sources, Taint Sinks, and Taint Propagation10.3 Using DTA to Detect the Heartbleed Bug10.4 DTA Design Factors: Taint Granularity, Taint Colors, and Taint Policies10.5 SummaryExercise
11.1 Introducing libdft11.2 Using DTA to Detect Remote Control-Hijacking11.3 Circumventing DTA with Implicit Flows11.4 A DTA-Based Data Exfiltration Detector11.5 SummaryExercise
12.1 An Overview of Symbolic Execution12.2 Constraint Solving with Z312.3 SummaryExercises
13.1 Introduction to Triton13.2 Maintaining Symbolic State with Abstract Syntax Trees13.3 Backward Slicing with Triton13.4 Using Triton to Increase Code Coverage13.5 Automatically Exploiting a Vulnerability13.6 SummaryExercise
A.1 Layout of an Assembly ProgramA.2 Structure of an x86 InstructionA.3 Common x86 InstructionsA.4 Common Code Constructs in Assembly
B.1 Required HeadersB.2 Data Structures Used in elfinjectB.3 Initializing libelfB.4 Getting the Executable HeaderB.5 Finding the PT_NOTE SegmentB.6 Injecting the Code BytesB.7 Aligning the Load Address for the Injected SectionB.8 Overwriting the .note.ABI-tag Section HeaderB.9 Setting the Name of the Injected SectionB.10 Overwriting the PT_NOTE Program HeaderB.11 Modifying the Entry Point
C.1 DisassemblersC.2 DebuggersC.3 Disassembly FrameworksC.4 Binary Analysis Frameworks
D.1 Standards and ReferencesD.2 Papers and ArticlesD.3 Books

Content preview from Practical Binary Analysis

FOREWORD

These days, you can find many books on assembly and even more descriptions of the ELF and PE binary formats. Stacks of articles about information flow tracking and symbolic execution abound. Yet there’s not a single book to take the reader from, say, understanding basic assembly to performing advanced binary analysis. Not a single book exists that shows the reader how to instrument binary programs, apply dynamic taint analysis to track interesting data through a program execution, or use symbolic execution for automated exploit generation. In other words, there’s no book out there that teaches you the techniques, the tools, and the mind-set you need for binary analysis. Until now.

What makes binary analysis challenging is that it requires ...