Get environment variable address

getenvaddr

/*
 * I'm not the author of this code, and I'm not sure who is.
 * There are several variants floating around on the Internet, 
 * but this is the one I use. 
 */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
	char *ptr;

	if(argc < 3) {
		printf("Usage: %s <environment variable> <target program name>\n", argv[0]);
		exit(0);
	}
	ptr = getenv(argv[1]); /* get env var location */
	ptr += (strlen(argv[0]) - strlen(argv[2]))*2; /* adjust for program name */
	printf("%s will be at %p\n", argv[1], ptr);
}

Credits for this goes to Jon Erickson :)

The code is from Page 147 and 148 of Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition .

Also on page 38 and 39 of Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 1st Edition .