Thilan Dissanayaka Exploit development Apr 12, 2026

Exploiting a heap buffer overflow in linux

In the previous article, we dissected glibc's malloc — chunks, bins, tcache, coalescing, and the metadata that holds it all together. Now we break it.

Heap exploitation is fundamentally different from stack exploitation. On the stack, the goal is clear: overwrite the return address, control EIP. On the heap, there's no return address to overwrite. Instead, we corrupt the allocator's metadata to trick malloc() into returning a pointer to memory we want to control — a function pointer, a GOT entry, a vtable, or any other target.

Exploiting a Stack Buffer Overflow on Linux

Have you ever wondered how attackers gain control over remote servers? How do they just run some exploit and compromise a computer? If we dive into the actual context, there is no magic happening....

Feb 12 Application Security

Boolean Based Blind SQL Injection

In regular SQL injection, you can see the database output right there on the page. Blind SQL injection is different — the application gives you nothing. No errors, no data, no feedback. But with boolean-based blind SQLi, you can still extract the entire database — one true/false question at a time.

Apr 12 Exploit development

Exploiting a heap buffer overflow in linux

In the [previous article](/heap-internals-how-glibc-malloc-works/), we dissected glibc's malloc — chunks, bins, tcache, coalescing, and the metadata that holds it all together. Now we break...

May 11 Identity & Access Management

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

Who are you — and what are you allowed to do? That's the fundamental question every secure system must answer. And it's exactly what Identity and Access Management (IAM) is built to solve.

Apr 12 Exploit development

Exploiting a format string vulnerebility on Linux

A misused printf can leak stack contents, read arbitrary memory, and write to arbitrary addresses. Format string vulnerabilities are one of the most powerful bug classes in C and they're the key to defeating ASLR. In this post, we exploit printf from leak to shell.

Apr 05 Exploit development

Bypassing DEP with Return-to-libc

DEP makes the stack non-executable — our shellcode can't run. The simplest bypass? Don't inject code at all. Instead, call functions that already exist in libc. In this post, we exploit a stack overflow to call system('/bin/sh') without writing a single byte of shellcode.