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CVE-2021-38304 is an improper input validation vulnerability in the National Instruments NI-PAL driver, affecting versions 20.0.0 and prior. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input, which could be exploited by a privileged local user to escalate privileges on the affected system.
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1 valid exploit after Mallory filtered fakes, detection scripts, and README-only repos.
This repository is a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for CVE-2021-38304, a critical vulnerability in older versions of the National Instruments nipalk.sys Windows kernel driver. The exploit demonstrates how an attacker can leverage a vulnerable IOCTL handler (0xABCD03C4) to supply a function pointer and parameters that the driver will invoke in kernel context without proper validation. The main exploit logic is implemented in 'main.cpp', which allocates memory, sets up a structure with a function pointer (typically to RtlCopyMemory), and sends it to the driver via DeviceIoControl. The exploit can leak arbitrary kernel memory or cause a denial of service (system crash) if an invalid pointer is used. Supporting code in 'utils.cpp' and 'utils.h' provides logging and kernel function address resolution. The only fingerprintable endpoint is the device file '\\.\NIPALK' and the specific IOCTL code. The repository is structured as a standalone PoC and does not include weaponized or framework-based code.
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