Shellcode Hook Detection

Author: David Zimmer
Date: 05.15.12 - 7:43pm

Every now and then shellcode pops up that does hook detection.

Ok fine, scdbg doesnt use jmp hooks..but not so fine if the shellcode doesnt actually check for a hook, and just always replaces the api prolog and does a jmp api+5. This screws up scdbg because the hook address isnt hit and dll memory starts getting executed.

I pushed a test patch tonight to the github repository that aims to fix this. If it detects any api+5 address being executed, it assumes its a hook detection code running, and will pass execution back to a hookDetect call back which tries to restore the stack and allow the standard api logging code to run normally.

Tested it with several shellcodes and seems to be working fine.

A precompiled binary is available in the github archive you can download if you want to play with it. Of the thoughts I have had on how to handle this, this seems to be the best solution so far...

These types of hook evasion routines will also cause a crash in sclog. Initially i switched to a 7 byte push const ret hook so I wouldnt trigger the hook check, but if they jmp +5 regardless its a crash. For sclog, I guess what I should do is pad the beginning of the hook a bit so that jmp +5 lands them squarely on my jmp hookthunk. That would be the best of both worlds.

Update: I tried the 7 byte hook, it worked, but not all api have enough room to embed it. Its really best to have a prolog pad that is devoid of instructions like jumps and calls to slip in a hook. I could have it selectivly fall back to original style hooks, but in the end i just reverted to standard detours style hooks for simplicity and stability.

One additional tip, if you get a shellcode which starts executing dll opcodes and then crashs in scdbg. You can find the point of transfer to dll memory quite quickly with the following procedure:

run sample again -ba 7c800000. this will break immediately when it tries to execute any dll memory. Copy the step count displayed.
run sample again -bs [step count-x], this will break x steps before the dll memory was first executed showing you exactly how it got there.

You can also dump memory, disassemble and analyze in ida from there too if need be.

Additionally if the problem is when executing null memory, there is a special switch to break on that, replace step 1 with the -b0 option.

Couple examples for reference:


seg000:0000019F HookCheck       proc near                
seg000:0000019F                                          
seg000:0000019F                 cmp     byte ptr [eax], 0E8h ; F
seg000:000001A2                 jz      short loc_1AE
seg000:000001A4                 cmp     byte ptr [eax], 0E9h ; T
seg000:000001A7                 jz      short loc_1AE
seg000:000001A9                 cmp     byte ptr [eax], 0EBh ; d
seg000:000001AC                 jnz     short loc_1BF
seg000:000001AE
seg000:000001AE loc_1AE:                                
seg000:000001AE                                          
seg000:000001AE                 cmp     dword ptr [eax+5], 90909090h
seg000:000001B5                 jz      short loc_1BF
seg000:000001B7                 mov     edi, edi
seg000:000001B9                 push    ebp
seg000:000001BA                 mov     ebp, esp
seg000:000001BC                 lea     eax, [eax+5]
seg000:000001BF
seg000:000001BF loc_1BF:                                
seg000:000001BF                                          
seg000:000001BF                 jmp     eax
seg000:000001BF HookCheck       endp  




.text:00401050 JumpIntoLoadLibraryA           
.text:00401050                 push    ebx                 
.text:00401051                 push    dword ptr [esi+34h] ;fake return address in k32 (scanned)
.text:00401054                 mov     edi, edi            ;implement its own prolog
.text:00401056                 push    ebp                 
.text:00401057                 mov     ebp, esp            
.text:00401059                 mov     edx, [esi]          ; LoadLibraryA from api table
.text:0040105B                 lea     edx, [edx+5]        ; +5
.text:0040105E                 jmp     edx
.text:0040105E JumpIntoLoadLibraryA endp




And the cleanup code:

int HookDetector(char* fxName){
	printf(" jmp %s+5 hook evasion code detected! trying to recover...\n", fxName);
	cpu->reg[esp] = cpu->reg[ebp];
	cpu->reg[ebp] = popd();
	return 1;	
}

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