May 5th - 8th, 2026 / 09:00 am - 06:00 pm (maybe later)

The Corelan “HEAP” exploit development MASTERCLASS is a fast-paced, mind-bending, hands-on course where you will learn advanced heap manipulation and exploit development techniques from an experienced exploit developer. During this 4 or 5-day class (sometimes just 3 “long” days at a conference), students will get the opportunity to learn how to write heap exploits for the Windows platform, using Windows 7 and Windows 11 as the example platform, but mostly focusing on learning & applying generic techniques that can be applied to other operating systems and heap implementations. We will discuss differences between Windows 7 and Windows 11 and explore previously undocumented techniques to achieve important exploitation primitives in Windows 11.  The trainer will share his “notes from the field” and various tips & tricks to become more effective at writing exploits.

This is most certainly not an entry level course. In fact, this is a one of the finest and most advanced courses you will find on heap exploit development for Windows, and probably the only one that dives deep into the Windows heap manager on Windows 7 and Windows 11 and demystifies how the heap really works.

This hardcore, practical, hands-on course will provide students with solid understanding of Windows heap exploitation. We make sure the course material is kept updated with current evolutions, includes previously undocumented tricks and techniques, and details about research we performed ourselves, so you can apply the research techniques on other applications and operating system versions. Combined with the way the course is built up, this will turn this class into a truly unique learning experience.

Together with Corelan Stack, the Corelan Heap course is the second step in your journey towards taking the CCED certification exam.

During all of our courses, we don’t just focus on techniques and mechanics, we don’t focus on just using one vulnerability, but we mainly want to make sure you understand why a given technique is used, why something works and why something doesn’t work. In the advanced course, we provide you with generic insights on how to do your own research related with heap exploitation in general (not just Windows 7 or Windows 11), fully preparing you for the future. This class covers techniques that work on both 32bit and 64bit applications.

In this course, we’ll focus on evidence based learning. In other words, I’ll give you the insights and tools to check and research things for yourself. I’ll stimulate critical thinking and we will demystify Heap management, control and exploitation for Windows. Don’t take my word on it. Come and see for yourself!

The current edition of the course is based on Windows 11 and Windows 7 (As the Windows 11 Heap Manager contains additional mitigations, we use Windows 7 first to teach the basics, and then use Windows 11 later on). Furthermore, this course contains an intro to x64 exploitation (stack & heap), providing you with the required fundamentals to get started with x64 exploitation yourself.

We believe those are just a few arguments that makes this training stand out between other exploit development training offerings. Feel free to check our testimonials page if you want to see real, voluntary, unmodified and uncensored reactions by some of our students.


Investment Protection
Our courses are packed with years and years of knowledge, experience, and tons of exercises. We spare no efforts to make sure our students can get the most out of the class… but we also realize that there is only so much a human being can absorb in just a few days. Furthermore, it’s not realistic to expect to be an expert at exploit development after this class ends. You’ll need to put in a lot of practise to get more fluent at writing exploits. That means you may end up with questions and may need some guidance after the class ends.

We care more about quality than quantity, and we are committed to making sure our students really feel supported during class and after the class ends. This means we provide post-training support to all of our students. If you have taken the course and you still have questions afterwards, we will help. This support system is unique in the industry, and is a great way to protect your investment.

WARNING: We do not provide solutions for any of the exercises in this course, but we will help you to find the solutions yourself, either during the course or after the course (via the student-only support system)


Why Take This Course ?
Are you familiar with the basics of exploit development ?  Do you know how to write exploits for saved return pointer overwrites and abuse SEH records with your eyes closed ?  Are you interested in understanding how heap spraying works, and why it works ?  Is heap exploitation still a mysterious black box for you? Are you now ready for the next step ?

• Have you taken the Stack (Bootcamp) or other commercial courses on exploit development and want to move to the next phase ?
• Do you want to learn modern techniques to exploit heap related memory corruptions on Windows 7 and Windows 11 ?
• Do you feel like other ‘advanced’ classes don’t really fully explain the “why” behind the “how” and leave you longing for more in-depth understanding of heap mechanics and manipulation?
• Do you want to learn the fine art of writing exploits for heap related corruptions in complex applications ?
• Do you want to learn the skills to investigate heap managers on modern Windows versions (Win7, Win11) and how to look for your own exploitation primitives?
• Would you like to know what (generic) questions to ask (rather than being spoon-fed exploit-specific solutions & answers)
• Would you like to know how to approach fuzzing/bug hunting in complex applications, how to recognise and determine exploitability for heap based corruptions?
• Are you involved in malware research or do Incident Response & interested in understanding how exploits work?
• Would you like to understand better how to detect exploits and how to protect against them?
• Would you like to get a basic view on common development mistakes, how to avoid them and how compiler options can help?
• Are you able to write ROP chains blindfolded ?  (It is fundamentally important that you have practical experience with constructing/writing your own ROP chain!)
• Are you willing to suffer and bleed, absorb new knowledge fast and not intimidated by debuggers and assembly instructions…

…then this course is exactly what you need !

Target Audience

• Exploit Developers ready to take the next step
• Red Teamers
• SOC Analysts
• Malware Researchers
• Digital Forensic Analysts
• Military/Law Enforcement/Intelligence Service Operators
• C/C++ Software Developers
• People interested in fuzzing / researching memory corruption vulnerabilities
• Anyone who prefer to learn content via in-person classes (as opposed to static guides & videos)

If you have a strong desire to learn and willing to suffer & bleed, then register for this class. If you are interested in organizing the course at a conference or as a private course at your company, send me an e-mail (peter[dot]ve{at}corelan[dot]be


Course Contents

ASLR & DEP Refresher

• Bypassing ASLR
• Bypassing DEP

WinDBG classic / WinDBGX

• WinDBG classic and WinDBGX fundamentals
• Symbols
• Breakpoints, logging breakpoints
• Using WinDBG(X) to explore Windows Heap datastructures in Windows 7 and Windows 11

Windows Heap Management
Terminology & building blocks

• Windows 7 Heap, Windows 11 Heap (“NT” and “Segment” heap)
• Front-End-Allocator and Back-End-Allocator
• Differences between Windows 7 & Windows 11
• Heap manipulation and exploitation primitives
• Advanced BEA feng shui
• Learn how to do your own heap related research, what to look for

Heap Spraying 

• Basic mechanisms
• Data & object spraying
• Precise heap spraying

Heap Exploitation

• Use-After-Free
• Linear & non-linear overflows / controlled write
• Double Free
• Type confusion
• Use of uninitialized memory
• Crash analysis & classification
• Memory leaks / Information Disclosure
• Heap Manipulations and heap primitives
• How to avoid heap sprays
• How to get better at finding bugs

Intro to x64 heap exploitation

• x64 processes, memory map, registers
• Functions & calling conventions
• Structured Exception Handling
• ASLR
• Stack Buffer Overflows
• Heap exploitation primitives on x64

What’s next

Overview of memory protection evolutions
During the course, students will get the opportunity to work on real vulnerabilities in real applications, use a wide range of heap exploitation techniques and most importantly learn how to do your own research to find exploitation primitives in complex applications and new versions of Windows.

We’re also going to study how AI may (or may not) be helpful during various stages of research and heap related exploit development.

Warning – The course has a steep learning curve and will require full attention and focus.

The “Course Contents” on this page is subject to change without prior notice & can be updated between the moment of registration and the actual course. We will try to cover as much as we can from the “Course Contents”, based on the overall ability to absorb knowledge and time needed to complete the exercises, but Corelan cannot ever guarantee that we will be able to cover everything.

What do you get after taking this class?

• Verbose courseware & bonus content
• Real skills
• Your own personal LAB. No costs, no subscription need.
• Tens of additional challenges and exercises
• FREE lifetime access to post-training support, allowing you to continue your learning journey at your own pace. No yelling, no deadlines

Knowledge & Attitude Prerequisites
Students must:

• be able to read and write simple C/C++ code and simple scripts (python, javascript)
• truly master all basic concepts of exploit development, as listed in our Expert-Level “STACK” course.  If you have taken the Stack course and done a lot of practice on ROP after taking the class, then you’re very likely ready for this class.
• be familiar with ROP (i.e. understand how it works on Windows, know how to build a ROP chain, know how to use mona.py to generate a chain and how to fix the chain if it doesn’t work)
• be familiar with using debuggers (we’ll use WinDBG for most part of the course, but we’ll spend some time explaining the basics of using WinDBG.  It is assumed that you have practical experience with Immunity Debugger and mona.py)
• be ready to dive into a debugger and read asm for hours and hours and hours
• be ready to think out of the box and have a strong desire to learn
• be fluent with managing Windows / Linux operating system and with using virtualization software such as vmware workstation/fusion or virtualbox
• be familiar with using Metasploit to generate shellcode (msfvenom, msfconsole) and managing meterpreter sessions
• have basic practical knowledge of x86 assembly

It’s imperative for students to comply with these prerequisites.


Technical Prerequisites
Unless specified otherwise, students are required to bring the following :

• A laptop (no netbook) with vmware workstation/fusion/virtualbox and enough processing power and RAM (we recommend 4Gb of RAM) to run up to 2 virtual machines at the same time.  The use of a 64bit processor and a 64bit operating system on the laptop will make the exercises more realistic.
• 3 Virtual machines (Windows 11 fully patched, Windows 7 SP1 (no patches), ParrotOS/Kali Linux with Metasploit (fully up-to-date)).

Note : you will receive the exact installation instructions after registration, about a week before class begins, so don’t start installing the VMs yet.

All required tools and applications will be provided during the training or will be downloaded from the internet during the training.

You must have full administrator access to all machines. You must be able to install and remove software, and you must be able to disable and/or remove firewall/antivirus/… when necessary.

Legal Prerequisites
It will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement at the start of the course. You will not be admitted to the course without signing this document. You can find a copy of the document here.