Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, variable names, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “Assume your program has to call a function called Meow, which is exported in a DLL named cat.dll.”

A block of code is set as follows:

pVirtualAlloc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle("kernel32.dll"), "VirtualAlloc");
payload_mem = pVirtualAlloc(0, payload_len, MEM_COMMIT | MEM_RESERVE, PAGE_READWRITE);

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

deXOR(cVirtualAlloc, sizeof(cVirtualAlloc), secretKey, sizeof(secretKey));
pVirtualAlloc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle("kernel32.dll"), cVirtualAlloc);

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ -O2 hack3.c -o hack3.exe -I/usr/share/mingw-w64/include/ -s -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -Wno-write-strings -fno-exceptions -fmerge-all-constants -static-libstdc++ -static-libgcc -fpermissive

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Then, on the Network tab, we’ll notice that our process has established a connection to the attacker’s host IP address.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.