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NT Heap Internals

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About Course

Dive deep into the architecture of modern Windows memory management with this advanced course on Windows NT Heap Internals. Designed for security researchers, reverse engineers, and system developers, this training demystifies how the Windows operating system manages dynamic memory. This is a no-non

Key Topics Covered

  • Windows User Mode NT Heap
  • Heap Segment management
  • Free Lists and Lookaside Lists
  • Heap Coalescing and Corruption mechanics
  • Debugging with WinDbg

Take your low-level Windows expertise to the next level and master the art of heap navigation.

What Will You Learn?

  • Understand Internal Structures - Detailed breakdowns of the Front End Allocator, Low Fragmentation Heap (LFH), and backend structures.
  • Reverse Engineer Memory Management - Gain the skills to analyze and deconstruct heap operations for debugging and analysis.
  • Exploit Development Foundations - Learn the theoretical and practical knowledge required for identifying heap-based vulnerabilities.
  • Predict Allocations - Master techniques to deterministically track memory usage and predict the addresses of future allocations.
  • Analyze Heap State - Techniques to manually inspect certain heap states and validate memory integrity at any execution point.

Course Content

Course Overview
Course overview.

  • Required Resources
  • Windows Versions and the Heap

High Level View
High level view of the heap.

Debugger Basics
Overview of some useful commands and tips for WinDBG and the heap.

Backend & LFH Overview
Backend and LFH terminology and overview.

(Backend) _HEAP_ENTRY
Introduction to the _HEAP_ENTRY structure for backend allocations.

(Backend) _HEAP_SEGMENT
Description of _HEAP_SEGMENT.

_HEAP
Exploring the _HEAP structure.

(Backend) FreeLists

(Backend) BlocksIndex or _HEAP_LIST_LOOKUP

(Backend) Practical Example

(LFH) _LFH_HEAP

(LFH) Practical Example