Antid0te

MacOS and iOS Kernel Internals For Security Researchers

Posted: by Stefan Esser   |  More posts about Blog Training iOS Kernel Security Internals MacOS
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Instructor: Stefan Esser (Antid0te UG/Antid0te SG)
Dates: 09th November - 13th November 2020 (Singapore Timezone)
Dates: 16th November - 20th November 2020 (EU/North America Timezone)
Venue: Online, Zoom
Availability: 20 Seats
Language: English

With the release of MacOS Big Sur and iOS 14 Apple has once again raised the bars in terms of kernel level security. This course will introduce you to the low level internals of the MacOS and iOS kernels from the perspective of a security researcher interested in kernel level vulnerability analysis, kernel rootkit/malware analysis/detection or driver development. While this course is concentrating on MacOS Big Sur on the x64 cpu architecture the latest security enhancements of iOS 14 will also be discussed. The course material was updated to the latest security features of MacOS Big Sur and iOS 14.

This training will be held virtually in November 2020 via Zoom Sessions with support via a Discord server. It will be perfomed twice to allow trainees accross different timezones to attend the course. For 5 days there will be daily live training sessions around 5h in length. In addition to that all trainees will receive 1-2 weeks before the course a multi hour set of introduction videos they need to work through before the course. This course is targeted at security researchers that want to dive into MacOS or iOS kernel security topics.

The course will focus on the MacOS side and therefore all training excercises will be performed on MacOS Big Sur. However iOS security specifics will also be covered by the course, if they are different from the MacOS way.

Topics

The following list of topics shows what will be covered by the course.

  • Introduction
    • Setting up a development and debugging environment
    • Developing your own kernel extensions (kext vs. systemextensions)
  • Low Level x64 / ARM64
    • Low level cpu details
    • Physical memory management
    • Exception Handling
    • Hardware Page Tables
    • Special Registers used by iOS
    • PAN and PAC (Pointer Authentication)
    • ...
  • Kernel Source Code
    • Structure of the Kernel Source Code
    • Where to look for Vulnerabilities
    • Implementation of Mitigations
    • ...
  • Kernel Drivers/(System)Extensions
    • IOKit
    • DriverKit / SystemExtensions
    • EndpointSecurity
    • Driver attack surface
    • Kernel driver code-signing
    • ...
  • Kernel Internals
    • Important data structures of the kernel
    • Mach-o fileformat / encryption
    • Mach messages and IPC
    • Security: MAC Policy Hooks, Sandbox, Code Signing, Kauth, socket filter
    • Filesystems, networking stack
    • ...
  • Kernel Debugging
    • Panic Dumps
    • Built-in Kernel Debugging / VMWARE based debugging
    • Debugging with own kernel extensions
    • Kernel Heap Debugging/Visualization
  • Kernel Heap
    • In-Depth Explanation of How the Kernel Heap works
    • Covers the NEW Big Sur / iOS 14 Kernel Heap
    • Discuss weaknesses in current heap implementation
  • Kernel Exploit Mitigations
    • Discussion of all the iOS Kernel Exploit Mitigations introduced
    • Includes software and hardware based mitigations like (KTRR, KPP, PAC, PAN, APRR)
    • Including newest mitigations already known in iOS 14
    • Discussion of various weaknesses in these protections
  • Kernel Rootkits
    • Discussion of previously hooked / abused data structures in MacOS rootkits
    • Rootkits and their detection in light on SystemExtensions and EndpointSecurity

Training Takeaways

  • The whole training material (multiple hundred slides) will be handed to the students in digital form.
  • For up to 5 days after the training students can rewatch video recordings of all sessions.
  • Trainees will get a license for the Antid0te software and scripts that are used during the training that allows usage but not redistribution of said software.

Training Requirements

  • Student Requirements
    • Basic understanding of exploitation
    • C and Python Programming knowledge
    • Knowledge of X64 assembly
  • Hardware Requirements
    • Apple Mac Notebook capable of running latest MacOS within VMWARE
    • Enough hard disk space to run VMs
  • Software Requirements
    • IDA Pro 6.x/7.x license (X86_64 and ARM64 support required)
    • alternatively Ghidra/Hopper/Binary Ninja can be used but script support varies by tool
    • Hexrays for X86_64/ARM64 helpful, but not required
    • BinDiff for IDA helpful, but not required
    • Mac OS X 10.15/16, with latest XCode and iOS 14.x SDK (or newer)
    • VMWARE Fusion
    • Additional Software will be made available during the training

Virtual Venue

The training sessions will be held via Zoom video conferencing. Training sessions will be around 5 hours per training day. In addition to that trainees will get access to a few hours worth of introductory videos.

Furthermore trainees get access to a Discord server that will be used to post information regarding the training and will be used to discuss exercises and their solution, unless those will be covered via Zoom.

All training sessions will be recorded and made available as videos until 5 days after the training. During that time trainees can rewatch sessions as often as they want.

Timezones

We offer the training in an EU/North America edition and in an Singapore/Asia edition because of timezones. Unlike in person training courses when all attendees are present and share the same timezone the execution of online training courses requires some adjustments to be made to allow attendees accross different timezones to attent.

EU / North America Edition

17:00 - 22:00 Berlin
16:00 - 21:00 London
08:00am - 01:00am Seattle / Vancouver
11:00am - 04:00pm New York / Montreal

Singapore Edition

10:00am - 03:00pm Singapore
11:00am - 04:00pm Seoul/Tokyo
01:00pm - 06:00pm Sydney
(-1 day) 06:00pm - 11:00pm Seattle / Vancouver
(-1 day) 09:00pm - 02:00am New York / Montreal

Pricing

We offer the following rates for this training.

EU/North America Edition 3600,- EUR (excl. VAT)
Singapore/Asia Edition 5750,- SGD

Register

If you have further questions or want to register for this training please contact us by e-mail training@antid0te.com. Please notice that signup, billing and execution of the training is performed by Antid0te UG (haftungsbeschränkt) for the EU/North America Edition and Antid0te SG Pte. Ltd. for the Singapore Edition.

In-House Training / Conferences / Additional Trainings

If you are interested in this training, but want us to perform the training for your people, want to feature our training at your online conference or would just like to know if we provide the training again at a later time please contact us by e-mail training@antid0te.com.