Olivia Gallucci

The presentation examines how different OS architectures, particularly Linux and BSD, shape the techniques used in binary exploitation. It begins by highlighting the foundational systems and standards—System V, POSIX, BSD, UNIX, and Linux—that influence an OS's behavior and security mechanisms like memory management, calling conventions, and stack management. Key topics include the System V application binary interface (ABI), which governs function calls and stack management, and POSIX standards, which ensure cross-platform exploit portability. The presentation explores UNIX philosophy's emphasis on simplicity and modularity, showing how patterns can help us think about vulnerabilities. The section about BSD's influence focuses on advanced memory management techniques that impact exploit strategies. The presentation also covers OS security features (e.g., ASLR, Write XOR Execute (W^X), and stack canaries), and how to bypass them. It delves into exploiting system calls for privilege escalation, using a case study surrounding Shellshock (CVE-2014-6271) and how it relates to recent memory corruption issues. A comparison of SysV and BSD mechanics shows differences in calling conventions, stack management, and system calls—all of which affect exploit development. In conclusion, the presentation displays why an OS's architecture can make or break successful binary exploitation, even if techniques themselves are theoretically viable.