Reversing and Exploiting ARM Binaries: rwthCTF Trafman
#Security Testing#Malware Analysis
A tool that scans a corpus of malware and builds a YARA rule to detect similar code sections.
Setting Up a Virtual ARM Environment
To set up a virtual ARM environment using Qemu, we will introduce ARM assembly, reverse ARM binaries, and demonstrate how to write basic exploits for ARM. We will use the trafman challenge from rwthCTF as an example.
Virtual ARM Environment
To begin, we need an environment that can run ARM binaries. Since I did not have access to an ARM machine, I created a virtual ARM environment using Qemu. Qemu is similar to VirtualBox or VMWare; however, it has the capability to support multiple architectures.
Emulating ARM on x86 or x64 Machines
This allows you to emulate ARM architecture on your default x86 or x64 machine.
First, we need to determine which ARM architecture to choose. Most Linux distributions support two architectures: armel and armhf. Armel is compatible with the ARMv4 instruction set and emulates floating point operations through software. In contrast, armhf supports the ARMv7 instruction set and utilizes hardware for floating point operations. This distinction holds true for Debian, while Ubuntu uses the term "armel" in a different context [Ubuntu FAQ, ARM FAQ].
