This course teaches patch diffing to analyze real-world Windows and Android vulnerabilities. Students use open-source tools like Ghidra to reverse engineer recent CVEs, gaining the skills and confidence to discover complex vulnerabilities with tools they already have.
Patch Diffing In The Dark: Reverse Engineering Modern CVEs // John McIntosh
In-Person | March 18-21 | 4 Days
BOOK NOWABSTRACT
Every day, a new CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure) is published or a new blog post comes out detailing the latest and greatest vulnerability. Often, we know about a vulnerability but feel like we don't have the skills or time to understand its root cause. What if you could change that? What if you could learn a skill that would lead you step by step towards understanding modern vulnerabilities? If you feel like you are always "in the dark" about the latest CVE and want to take a step towards the light (understanding), this course is for you.
Binary patch diffing is an essential skill for reverse engineering, vulnerability research, and malware analysis. The process helps a researcher identify the security-relevant code changes of a patched binary and helps highlight the underlying security issues. The process is not magic, and with a little guidance, anyone can learn the basics and improve with practice.
This fast-paced training will teach you how to reverse engineer the latest CVEs. We will start with a simple CVE description, progress towards identifying a vulnerability, and eventually gain a complete understanding of the underlying vulnerability and identify its root cause. You will analyze (7+) real-world CVEs, dive into the patch diffing process, and learn a step-by-step approach to modern patch diffing using open-source tools. The short topical lessons and hands-on exercises will have you patch diffing recent CVEs and their corresponding binaries across both Android and Windows platforms. You will learn about best practices, how to avoid patch diffing pitfalls, and get useful scripts to enhance your analysis workflow. The course will teach you how to approach modern vulnerabilities leveraging both static and dynamic analysis techniques. You will progress from knowing about a vulnerability to learning a systematic approach to discover, analyze, and trigger several modern vulnerabilities.
The best part about the training is that there is no secret ingredient. Using free tools (Ghidra SRE framework, BinDiff, and more) and leveraging readily available CVE information, you will learn how to discover and analyze complex vulnerabilities. The course, via hands-on exercises and lecture that cover real-world CVEs challenges, provides students with practical reverse engineering exercises to help you learn and practice the concepts and techniques. You will discover that you can leverage CVEs as a guide for reverse engineering and vulnerability research.
Take the first step into the light. Sign up for this course. Learn the skill of patch diffing to go from knowing about a vulnerability to actually understanding it.
Patch Diffing In The Dark: Reverse Engineering Modern CVEs // John McIntosh
In-Person | March 18-21 | 4 Days
INTENDED AUDIENCE
- Cybersecurity professionals seeking to advance their skills in reverse engineering complex vulnerabilities to learn how to mitigate risk and evaluate recent CVEs.
- Vulnerability Researchers hoping to learn a practical technique for vulnerability discovery. This course will challenge the researcher to go one step past learning (what others understand) and arrive in a place of actual research (discovering
something new). - Reverse engineers that want to learn how operating system securities are compromised by vulnerable application, services, and low-level interactions of modern operating systems.
KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- CVE Analysis: Learn how to analyze Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to understand the impact and exploitability of vulnerabilities.
- Patch Diffing: Learn the fundamentals of patch diffing, including what it is and how it can be used in vulnerability research.
- Binary Analysis: Gain skills in analyzing binary files in order to understand their structure and behavior.
- Identifying Vulnerabilities: Develop the ability to identify potential vulnerabilities in software through comparative analysis.
- Reverse Engineering Techniques: Acquire new techniques for reverse engineering binaries to discover how they work by leveraging static and dynamic analysis.
- Exploit Development: Understand the principles of developing exploits based on the vulnerabilities found through patch diffing.
- SRE Tool Utilization: Become proficient in using various open-source tools and software that aid in the process of patch diffing and vulnerability discovery.
Practical Exercises
Patch Diffing and Root Cause Analysis of over 7 realworld CVEs
- Learn how to use Ghidra’s Patch Diffing to compare two versions of a Windows binary and identify the changes made to fix a vulnerability. You will learn how to root cause the vulnerability and understand its exploitation. Combined Static and Dynamic Analysis
- Learn to use static analysis to patch diff and find vulnerable areas of code
- Leverage dynamic analysis using debuggers and 3rd party tools to dig deep into a CVE for root cause verification.
- Write Frida scripts to investigate vulnerable functions on mobile devices
COURSE DETAILS
Part 1
Learn the value of using readily available security information (CVEs, Github POCs, and blog posts) to dive deep into reverse engineering the latest CVEs.
- Introduction
- Binary Diffing Use Cases
- Seeking Binary Truth
- Overview of the CVE vulnerabilities and their impact
- Introduce the tools and data sets (Ghidra, WinDbg, Frida, CVEs)
- Patch Analysis
- Finding the CVE binaries
- Patch Diffing Workflow
- Reverse Engineering
- Interpreting Diff Results
- Patching Holes in Ghidra Version Tracking
- Root Cause Exercises
- BinDiff Alternative
- Vulnerability Analysis
- Discovering the vulnerable code path
- Identifying the vulnerability
- Ghidra scripting Version Tracking analysis
- Research/Download Grab Bag CVEs
Part 2
Learn how to go from a simple CVE description to finding the underlying root cause of the vulnerability. This day will provide the background on how to research CVEs, find the binaries of interest, and reverse engineer the vulnerabilities using both static and dynamic analysis.
- Windows: Zero to Hero - CVE-2023-28302
- Identify vulnerable application
- Research methods to reach vulnerable code paths
- Static and Dynamic Analysis
- Root Cause the vulnerability
- Develop exploit trigger POC
- Android: Zero to Average - WhatsApp CVE-2021-24043
- Android APK Reverse Engineering
- Identify vulnerable application
- Extracting native files from WhatsApp APKs
- Patch Diff Several WhatsApp CVEs
- Frida instrumentation for Dynamic Analysis
Part 3
Learn how to use a brand new Ghidra feature called Binary Similarity (BSim). BSim allows a researcher to build and explore a large set of binaries for comparison. Experience live patch diffing, where together as a class we walk through several recent CVE examples in real time to discover what we can learn.
- The Power of BSim
- Experience Ghidra’s latest feature Binary Similarity toolset
- Learn how to build training data sets for binary exploration
- Leverage BSim to broaden your patch diffing across binary data sets
- Grab Bag CVEs
- This exercise will provide an instructor led walk through of as many live patch
diffs of preselected CVEs and/or student suggested CVEs - This experience sometimes reaches beyond Windows or Android operating
systems. Experience will be unique for each class.
- This exercise will provide an instructor led walk through of as many live patch
Part 4
Last, we will conclude with a final project. The final project is designed to cement the concepts learned throughout the course and prepares a researcher for patch diffing outside of class. It will consist of several patch diffing challenges allowing you to flex the skills developed during the course.
- Final Project
- Practical application of skills learned in the course
- Challenge will be validated with live course CTF server
Knowledge Prequisites
Basic Knowledge of Vulnerabilities or CVEs: Understand how the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) system identifies unique vulnerabilities and understand the concept of vulnerability classes.
- Understanding of Security Principles: A foundational grasp of cybersecurity concepts and practices.
- Assembly Language Basics: An introductory understanding of assembly language or familiarity with programming in C.
No prior experience with Ghidra is required.
System Requirements
Hardware
Intel 64-bit i7+ (or equivalent) Laptop with 16GB+ RAM
- 60 GB disk space
- Ability to run Intel based VM similar to https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/virtual-machines/
Software
- VMware Workstation (Free version will suffice)
YOUR INSTRUCTOR: John McIntosh
John McIntosh @clearbluejar, is a security researcher at Clearseclabs. His area of expertise lies within reverse engineering and offensive security, where he demonstrates proficiency in binary analysis, patch diffing, and vulnerability discovery. Notably, John has developed multiple open-source security tools for vulnerability research, all of which are accessible on his GitHub page. Additionally, his website, https://clearbluejar.github.io/, features detailed write-ups on reversing recent CVEs and building RE tooling with Ghidra. Boasting over a decade of experience in offensive security, John is a distinguished presenter and educator at prominent security conferences internationally. He maintains a fervent commitment to sharing his latest research, acquiring fresh perspectives on binary analysis, and engaging in collaborative efforts with fellow security enthusiasts.