I would really suggest purchasing a good book about it. From my point of view, I would go for "Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition" from Jon Erickson which goes in depth about how to crack programs using gdb and other tools. It's really a wonderful book if you want to learn more about the world of cracking in general, and it doesn't require much prior security experience.
I've done some of this book. It's good, but you're better off knowing the basics before trying to really learn from it I think. I only knew a little C when I started, so I only got about 4 or 5 chapters after much googling before I drowned.
Learn some ASM and get familiar with gdb before attempting
It's definetely out there if you have only done a little C. It doesn't require any previous security knowledge though as I stated. But like you realized, it does require you to know your way around low-level programming.
Quick link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-The-Art-Exploitation-Edition/d...