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Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Beta, Windows Vista and ASLR

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Today the Visual Studio 2005 team released Service Pack 1 Beta. Included in the beta is the new linker that supports Address Space Layout Randomization on Windows Vista. You can get the update from the Microsoft Connect Site.

By default on Windows Vista system components are loaded at random locations, but with this new linker update Windows Vista will load your code at a random base address, all you need to do is use the new /dynamicbase linker option.

Here's how to use it.

  1. Load your C/C++ project.
  2. Open Solution Explorer (if it's not already opened)
  3. Right-click the Project name
  4. Click Properties
  5. Click the '+' symbol next to Linker
  6. Click Command Line
  7. In the Additional options pane type /dynamicbase

Voila!

You can verify your application loaded at a random address by loading the application under a debugger such as kd or windbg and looking at the base address as the process loads. On my computer, a little application I wrote to determine the address of various components within Windows Vista loaded at the following addresses on three separate reboots.

ModLoad: 00b00000 00b1b000 C:\test\CheckASLR\debug\CheckASLR.exe
ModLoad: 008c0000 008db000 C:\test\CheckASLR\debug\CheckASLR.exe
ModLoad: 01250000 0126b000 C:\test\CheckASLR\debug\CheckASLR.exe

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 26, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 26, 2006
    Say, what does this imply in terms of the executable's layout? what does the linker option does that producing a relocatable executable didn't?

  • Anonymous
    September 27, 2006
    >>exposed through UI
    file a bug against the beta - all the bugs are looked at.

  • Anonymous
    September 27, 2006
    >>what does this imply in terms of the executable's layout

    nothing much - there is a new bit added to the PE header.

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2006
    Wow, that must use a lot of memory for shared DLLs :(

  • Anonymous
    September 29, 2006
    >>Wow, that must use a lot of memory for shared DLLs :(


    not at all - a system DLL is loaded at the same address for each application, it's just random across reboots.

  • Anonymous
    October 04, 2006
    I've had some people ask me about a paper that was recently published detailing alleged bugs in Address

  • Anonymous
    October 04, 2006
    I've had some people ask me about a paper that was recently published detailing alleged bugs in Address

  • Anonymous
    November 15, 2006
    Sorry if you've answered this before, but does this mean that rebasing is now a thing of the past? thanks m