Bash 'printf' equivalent for command prompt?

Question

I'm looking to pipe some String input to a small C program in Windows's command prompt. In bash I could use

$ printf "AAAAA\x86\x08\x04\xed" | ./program

Essentially, I need something to escape those hexadecimal numbers in command prompt.

Is there an equivalent or similar command for printf in command prompt/powershell?

Thanks

@Lekensteyn: look at the escaped bytes. It's easily imaginable that this could be some code. — 0xC0000022L, Mar 13 '11 at 14:52
Because it's exploiting a buffer overflow vulnerability I need it for. And people exploiting them regularly might know the answer... — Calum Murray, Mar 13 '11 at 14:52

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 13 '11 at 15:16

6

In PowerShell, you would do it this way:

"AAAAA{0}{1}{2}{3}" -f 0x86,0x08,0x04,0xed | ./program

edited Mar 13 '11 at 15:16

Joey

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answered Mar 13 '11 at 14:54

Keith Hill

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`\x08` would indeed be the escape for character 8 in bash, so the latter example is correct. – Joey Mar 13 '11 at 15:11
Yeah, think the second example is what I was looking for. Thanks Keith and Joey! – Calum Murray Mar 13 '11 at 15:29

golem · Answer 2 · 2015-11-15T17:48:50.847

I recently came up with the same question myself and decided that for someone developing Windows exploits it is worth installing cygwin :)

Otherwise one could build a small C program mimicking printf's functionality:

#include <string.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int i;
    char tmp[3];

    tmp[2] = '\0';

    if (argc > 1) {
        for (i = 2; i < strlen(argv[1]); i += 4) {
            strncpy(tmp, argv[1]+i, 2);
            printf("%c", (char)strtol(tmp, NULL, 16));
        }
    }
    else {
        printf("USAGE: printf.exe SHELLCODE\n");
        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

The program only handles "\xAB\xCD" strings, but it shouldn't be difficult to extend it to handle "AAAAA\xAB\xCD" strings if one needs it.

Bash 'printf' equivalent for command prompt?

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