WINDOWS 8 HEAP INTERNALS

Windows 8 developer preview was released in September 2011. While many focused on the Metro UI of the operating system, we decided to investigate the memory manager. Although generic heap exploitation has been dead for quite some time, intricate knowledge of both the application and underlying operating system's memory manager have continued to prove that reliable heap exploitation is still achievable. This presentation will focus on the transition of heap exploitation mitigations from Windows 7 to Windows 8 (Consumer Preview) from both a user-land and kernel-land perspective. We will be examining the inner workings of the Windows memory manager for allocations, de-allocations and all additional heap-related security features implemented in Windows 8. Also, additional tips and tricks will be covered providing the attendees the proper knowledge to achieve the highest possible levels of heap determinism.

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