Beginner's Guide to Buffer Overflow Exploit Development

Introduction

I'm relatively new to the security community, and like many beginners, I dedicate a portion of my time to platforms such as HackTheBox and TryHackMe. Recently, I was working on a room called Brainpan 1, which I found particularly intriguing as it involves reverse engineering Windows executables and developing buffer overflow exploits.

As the saying goes, "The best way to learn is to teach," and so I've put together this documentation for fellow beginners interested in buffer overflow exploit development. Let's have some fun! 😄😄😄

You can locate all the source code used in this documentation within the resources folder, including the Windows executable.

Table of Contents

• Understanding brainpan.exe
• Exploring Spiking
• Fuzzing with Python
• Determining the Offset
• EIP Overwrite Techniques
• Identifying Malformed Characters
• Locating the Correct Module
• Generating Shellcode and Gaining Access