C and C++ Secure Coding (X86) Training in Hong Kong

General C/C++ development

• Understand basic concepts of security, IT security and secure coding
• Realize the severe consequences of unsecure buffer handling
• Understand the architectural protection techniques and their weaknesses
• Have a practical understanding of cryptography
• Learn about XML security
• Learn about typical coding mistakes and how to avoid them
• Be informed about recent vulnerabilities in various platforms, frameworks and libraries
• Get sources and further readings on secure coding practices 

Day 1

• IT security and secure coding
  • Nature of security
  • What is risk?
  • IT security vs. secure coding
  • From vulnerabilities to botnets and cybercrime
    • Nature of security flaws
    • Reasons of difficulty
    • From an infected computer to targeted attacks
• x86 machine code, memory layout and stack operations
  • Intel 80x86 Processors – main registers
  • Intel 80x86 Processors – most important instructions
  • Intel 80x86 Processors – flags
  • Intel 80x86 Processors – control instructions
  • Intel 80x86 Processors – stack handling and flow control
  • The memory address layout
  • The function calling mechanism in C/C++ on x86
  • Calling conventions
  • The local variables and the stack frame
  • Function calls – prologue and epilogue of a function
  • Stack frame of nested calls
  • Stack frame of recursive functions
• Buffer overflow
  • Stack overflow
    • Buffer overflow on the stack
    • Overwriting the return address
    • Exercises – introduction
    • Exercise BOFIntro
    • Exercise BOFShellcode
  • Protection against stack overflow
    • Specific protection methods
    • Protection methods at different layers
    • The protection matrix of software security
    • Stack overflow – Prevention (during development)
    • Stack overflow – Detection (during execution)
    • Fortify compiler option (FORTIFY_SOURCE)
    • Exercise BOFShellcode – Using the Fortify compiler option
  • Stack smashing protection
    • Stack smashing protection variants
    • Stack smashing protection in GCC
    • Exercise BOFShellcode – Stack smashing protection
    • Effects of stack smashing protection
  • Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)
    • Randomization with ASLR
    • Practical weaknesses and limitations to ASLR
    • Circumventing ASLR: NOP sledding
  • Non executable memory areas – the NX bit
    • Access control on memory segments
    • The Never eXecute (NX) bit

Day 2

• Buffer overflow
  • Return-to-libc attack – Circumventing the NX bit protection
    • Circumventing memory execution protection
    • Return-to-libc attack
  • Return oriented programming (ROP)
    • Exploiting with ROP
    • ROP gadgets
    • ROP mitigation
      • Mitigation techniques of ROP attack
  • Heap overflow
    • Memory allocation managed by a doubly-linked list
    • Buffer overflow on the heap
    • Steps of freeing and joining memory blocks
    • Freeing allocated memory blocks
    • Case study – Heartbleed
      • TLS Heartbeat Extension
      • Heartbleed – information leakage in OpenSSL
      • Heartbleed – fix in v1.0.1g
    • Protection against heap overflow
• Practical cryptography
  • Rule #1 of implementing cryptography
  • Cryptosystems
    • Elements of a cryptosystem
  • Symmetric-key cryptography
    • Providing confidentiality with symmetric cryptography
    • Symmetric encryption algorithms
    • Modes of operation
    • Symmetric encryption with OpenSSL: encryption
    • Symmetric encryption with OpenSSL: decryption
  • Other cryptographic algorithms
    • Hash or message digest
    • Hash algorithms
    • SHAttered
    • Hashing with OpenSSL
    • Message Authentication Code (MAC)
    • Providing integrity and authenticity with a symmetric key
    • Random number generation
      • Random numbers and cryptography
      • Cryptographically-strong PRNGs
      • Weak PRNGs in C and C++
      • Stronger PRNGs in C
      • Generating random numbers with OpenSSL
      • Hardware-based TRNGs
  • Asymmetric (public-key) cryptography
    • Providing confidentiality with public-key encryption
    • Rule of thumb – possession of private key
    • The RSA algorithm
      • Introduction to RSA algorithm
      • Encrypting with RSA
      • Combining symmetric and asymmetric algorithms
      • Digital signing with RSA
      • Asymmetric encryption with OpenSSL
      • Digital signatures with OpenSSL
  • Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
    • Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack
    • Digital certificates against MitM attack
    • Certificate Authorities in Public Key Infrastructure
    • X.509 digital certificate
• XML security
  • XML injection
    • Injection principles
    • Exercise – XML injection
    • Protection through sanitization and XML validation
    • XML parsing in C++
  • Abusing XML Entity
    • XML Entity introduction
    • Exercise – XML bomb
    • XML bomb
    • XML external entity attack (XXE) – resource inclusion
    • Exercise – XXE attack
    • Preventing entity-related attacks
    • Case study – XXE in Google Toolbar
• Common coding errors and vulnerabilities
  • Improper error and exception handling
    • Typical problems with error and exception handling
    • Empty catch block
    • Overly broad catch
    • Exercise ErrorHandling – spot the bug!
    • Exercise – Error handling
    • Case study – "e;#iamroot"e; authentication bypass in macOS
      • Authentication process in macOS (High Sierra)
      • Incorrect error handling in opendirectoryd
      • The #iamroot vulnerability (CVE-2017-13872)
  • Code quality problems
    • Dangers arising from poor code quality
    • Poor code quality – spot the bug!
    • Unreleased resources
    • Type mismatch – Spot the bug!
    • Exercise TypeMismatch
    • Memory allocation problems
      • Smart pointers
      • Zero length allocation
      • Double free
      • Mixing delete and delete[]
    • Use after free
      • Use after free – Instance of a class
      • Spot the bug
      • Use after free – Dangling pointers
    • Case study - WannaCry
      • The WannaCry ransomware
      • The vulnerability behind WannaCry – spot the bug!
      • Lessons learned

Day 3

• Common coding errors and vulnerabilities
  • Input validation
    • Input validation concepts
    • Integer problems
      • Representation of negative integers
      • Integer ranges
      • Integer overflow
      • Integer problems in C/C++
      • The integer promotion rule in C/C++
      • Arithmetic overflow – spot the bug!
      • Exercise IntOverflow
      • What is the value of abs(INT_MIN)?
      • Signedness bug – spot the bug!
      • Integer truncation – spot the bug!
      • Integer problem – best practices
      • Case study – Android Stagefright
    • Printf format string bug
      • Printf format strings
      • Printf format string bug – exploitation
      • Exercise Printf
      • Printf format string exploit – overwriting the return address
    • Printf format string problem – best practices
    • Some other input validation problems
      • Array indexing – spot the bug!
      • Off-by-one and other null termination errors
      • The Unicode bug
    • Path traversal vulnerability
      • Path traversal – weak protections
      • Path traversal – best practices
    • Log forging
      • Some other typical problems with log files
  • Improper use of security features
    • Typical problems related to the use of security features
    • Password management
      • Exercise – Weakness of hashed passwords
      • Password management and storage
      • Special purpose hash algorithms for password storage
      • Argon2 and PBKDF2 implementations in C/C++
      • bcrypt and scrypt implementations in C/C++
      • Case study – the Ashley Madison data breach
      • Typical mistakes in password management
      • Exercise – Hard coded passwords
  • Time and state problems
    • Time and state related problems
    • Serialization errors
    • Exercise TOCTTOU
    • Best practices against TOCTTOU
• Principles of security and secure coding
  • Matt Bishop’s principles of robust programming
  • The security principles of Saltzer and Schroeder
• Knowledge sources
  • Secure coding sources – a starter kit
  • Vulnerability databases
  • Recommended books – C/C++