Understand Heap Memory layout with pwndbg
summary
Explains concrete heap internals by running a C program that calls malloc and free, using pwndbg inside GDB to display heap chunks and metadata; shows live commands like viewing tcache and unsorted bins, stepping to breakpoints and reading chunk headers. Demonstrates corrupting a size field to create overlapping allocations and observes pointer/size changes in memory, with the demo successfully reproducing the overlap and clarifying why allocator choices (tcache vs fastbin) change exploitation paths.
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chapters (5)
- 0:00Introduction to talk
- 1:09Dynamic memory allocation basics
- 12:24Heap memory layout overview
- 22:08Pwndbg memory inspection demo
- 30:50Q&A and closing remarks
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