Beginner in exploit development

[gray]

I am interested in learning more about exploiting vulnerable programs and being able to code exploits for vulnerabilities. I have intermediate Python knowledge and had an introductory course in C. I am aware that my lack of serious proficiency with C is going to be a problem if I want to tackle exploit development, so I am going to work on that.  My plan is to read some relevant books / resources on the subject, while using wargame sites for practice, such as those found on http://overthewire.org/wargames/ or http://exploit-exercises.com/

The problem is, I find myself completely lost beyond the very basic buffer overflow and format string exploits. So I concluded I might have been going wrong about this, and should start over from the ground up. Getting more familiar with C, assembly and debugging is my priority now, and perhaps things will be clearer as I move along.

So I am wondering if someone who is more experienced in this matter could provide  a roadmap of what resources I should use to get some solid basic notions and be able to move to exploits from there on.

What I tried so far:

Opensecurity videos and slides
Corelan tutorials (though I stopped after the first because I felt I was not at the level where I could comprehend all the explanations)
SecurityTube free series in Assembly and GDB
Various articles and PDFs I found on the net

And my current tentative plan of study:

Programming in C by Stephen G. Kochan
For assembly, I have a number of books, but I don't know which one would be best ( I have Assembly language Step by Step and Guide to Assembly Language - A Concise Introduction, among others )
Hacking The Art of Exploitation + The Shellcoder's Handbook - I'm not sure if these aren't too advanced for my current level

If anyone has any tips or advice about the optimal way to study for getting into the exploit development field, I would greatly appreciate if you could share some with me.

Thanks in advance!

[Rytiou]

I appreciate your enthusiasm for wanting to learn exploit development.  It seems like you've gotten a decent start and even though I have 0 knowledge in this area I would like to give you a piece of advice. If you would have blended this in with your intro thread I believe you would've received a far warmer welcome and more people would have been eager  to help you out. But instead you just started posting your questions and expect people to give them to you. Now don't take this the wrong way or anything I'm sure someone will help you out here but it's bad practice to join a forum, not make an intro telling people about yourself and what your goals are, and start asking questions. You just have to fall into the cracks if that makes any sense. Nonetheless welcome to the forum and if you have a look here https://evilzone.org/tutorials/%28official%29-tutorial-index/  the top section will have some decent tutorials in exploit development. Hope I didn't offend you in anyway as it was not my intention but I thought you should here it. Enjoy your time on EZ and make sure to hit up the IRC for a fun time.

[gray]

Sorry, it's my bad habit of jumping straight into things  Thanks for the heads up, I'll go make an introductory post now!

[Architect]

Additionally, reading people's writeups for the stuff at exploit-exercises is extremely useful as many of them reference reading material you can check out to get a better handle on things.

So true. I've come across many crossroads where I didn't know where to go from there, until I found that one research paper that just gave me the knowledge to get a particular thing done. So it can be a real life saver if you find the right material.

[gray]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I will check writeups from infosec blogs when available, and I'm thinking maybe I should also make my own writeups, to keep a detailed account of what I've done, how and why. That might encourage me to search for more information on a topic than settle for the obvious approach.

[mmu]

These are all good books.

The Art of Software Security Assessment
http://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/0321444426?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Bug Hunters Diary
http://www.amazon.fr/Bug-Hunters-Diary-Software-Security/dp/1593273851/ref=sr_1_1?s=english-books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404254433&sr=1-1&keywords=bug+hunters+diary

Shellcoders Handbook
http://www.amazon.fr/Shellcoders-Handbook-Discovering-Exploiting-Security-ebook/dp/B004P5O38Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404254447&sr=8-1&keywords=shellcoders+handbook

[Z3R0]

Here are some videos that try to explain beginner-level exploit development:

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https://evilzone.org/video-tutorials/exploit-series-part-1-(intro)/
https://evilzone.org/video-tutorials/exploit-series-part-2-(1st-segment)/
https://evilzone.org/video-tutorials/exploit-series-part-2-(2nd-segment)/
https://evilzone.org/video-tutorials/exploit-series-part-3/
https://evilzone.org/video-tutorials/exploit-series-part-4/
https://evilzone.org/video-tutorials/exploit-series-part-5-(1st-segment)/
https://evilzone.org/video-tutorials/exploit-series-part-5/