What is offset?

Career Paths Penetration Tester
1

I have a very basic question :slight_smile:

:face_with_peeking_eye:

—> Asking in chatxxx:

Question:

From a software or programming perspective, what is an offset?

Answer:

In programming, an offset refers to a number that indicates the distance (or displacement) from a starting point, typically in memory or data structures.

Common Contexts Where “Offset” Appears:

  1. Memory Offsets
  2. File Offsets
  3. Array or Buffer Indexing
  4. Data Structure Fields
  5. Paging or Virtual Memory

Summary Definition:
An offset is a numerical value that specifies how far (in units like bytes, elements, etc.) a certain location is from a defined base or start point.

With the above information…
—> My question is:
For a PENTESTER an OFFSET (in a programming code) is an address of a pointer or are several things (depending on the context)?

Thanks for the information :slight_smile:

2

In penetration testing, particularly when dealing with buffer overflows and exploit development, an offset refers to the number of bytes from the start of the buffer to a specific point of interest in memory (memory offset), usually the instruction pointer or another register you want to control.

1 Like
3

Thank you :slight_smile:

“I guess” before the overflow, right?

:thinking:

4

i am having a problem during the OSINT Lab while entering the command tags, please if anyone has a solution, you can please send forth.

5

Hey there - I’m not sure what you mean by command tags. Could you please provide the precise part and step number, as well as a screenshot of what you’re seeing?

6

Lab or challenge?

I can tell you that I completed them without any problem… Maybe you missed a step :slight_smile: