Interpreting the Fields: Attack Plan
For the previous (deliberately fragile) binary, a typical plan:
- No canary → overflow straight to the saved return address.
- NX on → no shellcode; build a ROP chain instead.
- No PIE → gadget and PLT/GOT addresses are constant — no image leak needed.
- Partial RELRO → can overwrite a GOT entry, or leak libc then ret2libc.
Key Takeaway
checksec is the first command in every pwn lab. Its four fields tell you which attack technique the binary actually permits.