Buffer Overflows on x64 Windows: A Practical Beginners Guide (Part 1): Setting up

Introduction Hello everyone. Mirrai here. I've been wanting to make this tutorial for a while because i feel guides on windows exploitation are hard to come across (especially x64) so i finally decided to start. This guide will walk you through the fundamentals of stack-based buffer overflows on x64 Windows, what they are, why they work, and how to set up your environment to start exploring them yourself. By the end of part 1 you'll understand the stack, what RIP is and why controlling it allows arbitrary code execution and you'll have a vulnerable program ready to analyze. Part 2 will cover the actual, practical exploitation. x86 vs. x64 If you’ve ever looked at older tutorials, you’ve probably seen a lot of talk about x86 (32-bit) exploitation. While the logic is similar, jumping to x64 (64-bit) feels like moving from an elevator to a warehouse. Everything is bigger and it will affect certain exploits later down the road. In x86, your registers were 32 bits wide. In x64, they’ve doub