PPLdump : Dump The Memory Of A PPL With A Userland Exploit

PPLdump implements a userland exploit that was initially discussed by James Forshaw (a.k.a. @tiraniddo) – in this blog post – for dumping the memory of any PPL as an administrator.

I wrote two blog posts about this tool. The first part is about Protected Processes concepts while the second one dicusses the bypass technique itself.

Usage

Simply run the executable without any argument and you will get a detailed help/usage.

c:\Temp>PPLdump64.exe
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| _ | _ | | | | _ _
| | | || . | | | | . | version 0.4 || || |||__|||| | by @itm4n
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Description:
Dump the memory of a Protected Process Light (PPL) with a userland exploit
Usage:
PPLdump.exe [-v] [-d] [-f]
Arguments:
PROC_NAME The name of a Process to dump
PROC_ID The ID of a Process to dump
DUMP_FILE The path of the output dump file
Options:
-v (Verbose) Enable verbose mode
-d (Debug) Enable debug mode (implies verbose)
-f (Force) Bypass DefineDosDevice error check
Examples:
PPLdump.exe lsass.exe lsass.dmp
PPLdump.exe -v 720 out.dmp

Tests

Windows versionBuildEditionArchAdminSYSTEM
Windows 10 20H219042Prox64✔️✔️
Windows 10 20H219042Prox86✔️✔️
Windows 10 190918363Prox64✔️✔️
Windows 10 150710240Educationalx64✔️✔️
Windows 10 150710240Homex64✔️✔️
Windows 10 150710240Prox64✔️✔️
Windows Server 201917763Standardx64✔️✔️
Windows Server 201917763Essentialsx64✔️✔️
Windows 8.19600Prox64⚠️⚠️
Windows Server 2012 R29600Standardx64⚠️⚠️

 The exploit fails on fully updated Windows 8.1 / Server 2012 R2 machines. I have yet to figure out which patch caused the error.

[-] DefineDosDevice failed with error code 6 – The handle is invalid.

On Windows 8.1 / Server 2012 R2, you might also have to compile the binary statically (see “Build instructions” below).

Build Instructions

This Visual Studio Solution comprises two projects (the executable and a payload DLL) that need to be compiled in a specific order. Everything is pre-configured, so you just have to follow these simple instructions. The compiled payload DLL is automatically embedded into the final executable.

  • Open the Solution with Visual Studio 2019.
  • Select Release / x64 or Release / x86 depending on the architecture of the target machine.
  • Build > Build Solution.

On Windows 8.1 / Server 2012 R2, you might have to compile the binary statically.

  • Right-click on the PPLdump project.
  • Go to Configuration Properties > C/C++ > Code Generation.
  • Select Multi-threaded (/MT) as the Runtime Library option.
  • Build the Solution.
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