Fun with Assembly 7: Cracking attempts at security through obscurity

Posted by Hywel Carver on August 5, 2015

This is the seventh in a series. You might want to read the previous post before reading this.

This post is based on the Reykjavik level on microcorruption.com. Like last time, we’re trying to find an input to open a lock without knowing the correct password, using knowledge of assembly language.

First glance

443e:  3e40 f800      mov   #0xf8, r14
4442:  3f40 0024      mov   #0x2400, r15
4446:  b012 8644      call  #0x4486 <enc>
444a:  b012 0024      call  #0x2400

Hmm. We call a function called enc, passing the location 0x2400, then we call 0x2400 itself. That’s unusual because at this point, 0x2400 is full of junk, not usable assembly code. If we let the code run up until 0x444a, we find that the content of 0x2400 has been updated. So it looks like enc was decrypting something that was there into runnable assembly.

Decompiling

By pausing the running code, we can copy the decrypted instructions into a decompiler, to convert it to readable assembly, which we can then understand. The decrypted code begins with one long function, so let’s begin with that.

2400: 0b12           push   r11
2402: 0412           push   r4
2404: 0441           mov    sp, r4
2406: 2452           add    #0x4, r4
2408: 3150 e0ff      add    #0xffe0, sp
240c: 3b40 2045      mov    #0x4520, r11
2410: 073c           jmp    $+0x10
2412: 1b53           inc    r11
2414: 8f11           sxt    r15
2416: 0f12           push   r15
2418: 0312           push   #0x0
241a: b012 6424      call   #0x2464
242e: 2152           add    #0x4, sp
2420: 6f4b           mov.b  @r11, r15
2422: 4f93           tst.b  r15
2424: f623           jnz    $-0x12
2426: 3012 0a00      push   #0xa
242a: 0312           push   #0x0
242c: b012 6424      call   #0x2464
2430: 2152           add    #0x4, sp
2432: 3012 1f00      push   #0x1f
2436: 3f40 dcff      mov    #0xffdc, r15
243a: 0f54           add    r4, r15
243c: 0f12           push   r15
243e: 2312           push   #0x2
2440: b012 6424      call   #0x2464
2444: 3150 0600      add    #0x6, sp
2448: b490 8d8c dcff cmp    #0x8c8d, -0x24(r4)
244e: 0520           jnz    $+0xc
2450: 3012 7f00      push   #0x7f
2454: b012 6424      call   #0x2464
2458: 2153           incd   sp
245a: 3150 2000      add    #0x20, sp
245e: 3441           pop    r4
2460: 3b41           pop    r11
2462: 3041           ret

There’s a lot here, but two lines stand out

2450: 3012 7f00      push   #0x7f
2454: b012 6424      call   #0x2464

0x2464 looks like it’s the interrupt function, because it’s called so many times. And the manual tells us that 0x7f is the argument passed to unlock the door. So how do we get this to be called? The two lines before have:

2448: b490 8d8c dcff cmp    #0x8c8d, -0x24(r4)
244e: 0520           jnz    $+0xc

We can see that the lines that open the door are only called if -0x24(r4) is equal to the literal value 0x8c8d. It’s not much of a stretch to guess that -0x24(r4) is the start of the string. So let’s try an input of 0x8d8c (remember: we reverse the byte order). It works!

Endnotes

As a rule, security through obscurity doesn’t work. Hiding the way you make something secure doesn’t really secure it, because with a little hard work someone can come and uncover the way you make something secure. That’s not the same as hiding the password to make something secure - it was easy for us to uncover the assembly code that was being run here. But that wouldn’t have helped us at all if the password had been a better-kept secret.


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