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Let's Dance in the Cache: Destabilizing Hash Tables on Microsoft IIS

Orange Tsai

Orange Tsai presents groundbreaking research into Microsoft IIS hash table implementations, weaponizing cache collisions and memory layout manipulation for RCE.

Summary

The Fundamental Role of Hash Tables in Web Servers

Hash tables are ubiquitous data structures used by web servers like Microsoft IIS to manage request routing, module pipelines, and output caching.

Reverse Engineering Microsoft IIS Cache Internals

Orange Tsai analyzes the underlying hash algorithms and bucket resolution mechanisms inside the IIS core binary (http.sys and w3core.dll).

Inducing Deterministic Hash Collisions and Cache Confusion

Tsai demonstrates crafting specific URL requests to induce hash collisions, corrupting internal cache tables and overwriting cached authentication states.

Achieving Pre-Auth Remote Code Execution on Windows Servers

The author details weaponizing cache corruption to gain unauthorized remote code execution on fully patched Microsoft IIS servers.

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