VPS: Excavating High-Level C++ Constructs from Low-Level Binaries to Protect Dynamic Dispatching

arXiv (Cornell University)

Abstract

Polymorphism and inheritance make C++ suitable for writing complex software, but significantly increase the attack surface because the implementation relies on virtual function tables (vtables). These vtables contain function pointers that attackers can potentially hijack and in practice, vtable hijacking is one of the most important attack vector for C++ binaries. In this paper, we present VTable Pointer Separation (VPS), a practical binary-level defense against vtable hijacking in C++ applications. Unlike previous binary-level defenses, which rely on unsound static analyses to match classes to virtual callsites, VPS achieves a more accurate protection by restricting virtual callsites to validly created objects. More specifically, VPS ensures that virtual callsites can only use objects created at valid object construction sites, and only if those objects can reach the callsite. Moreover, VPS explicitly prevents false positives (falsely identified virtual callsites) from breaking the binary, an issue existing work does not handle correctly or at all. We evaluate the prototype implementation of VPS on a diverse set of complex, real-world applications (MongoDB, MySQL server, Node.js, SPEC CPU2017/CPU2006), showing that our approach protects on average 97.8% of all virtual callsites in SPEC CPU2006 and 97.4% in SPEC CPU2017 (all C++ benchmarks), with a moderate performance overhead of 11% and 9% geomean, respectively. Furthermore, our evaluation reveals 86 false negatives in VTV, a popular source-based defense which is part of GCC.

Authors 7

1. Andre Pawlowski

   Ruhr University Bochum

   Affiliation as printed

   Ruhr-Universität Bochum

   Ruhr-UniversitÄt Bochum

2. Victor van der Veen

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   vrije universiteit amsterdam

3. Dennis Andriesse

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   vrije universiteit amsterdam

4. Erik van der Kouwe Aachen

   Leiden University · Ruhr University Bochum

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University

   Ruhr-Universität Bochum

5. Thorsten Holz

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam · Ruhr University Bochum

   Affiliation as printed

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Ruhr-UniversitÄt Bochum

6. Cristiano Giuffrida

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   Affiliation as printed

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   vrije universiteit amsterdam

7. Herbert Bos

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam · Ruhr University Bochum

   Affiliation as printed

   Ruhr-Universität Bochum

   Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

   vrije universiteit amsterdam