Buffer Overflows: Attacks and Defenses for the Vulnerability of the Decade

[Nytro]

Buffer Overflows:

Attacks and Defenses for the Vulnerability of the Decade

rispin Cowan, Perry Wagle, Calton Pu,Steve Beattie, and Jonathan Walpole

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Oregon Graduate Institute of Science

&

Technology

(crispin@cse.ogi.edu)

http://www.cse.ogi.edu/DISC/projects/immunix

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Abstract

Buffer overflows have been the most common

form of security vulnerability for the last ten

years. More over, buffer overflow vulnerabilities

dominate the area of remote network penetra-

tion vulnerabilities, where an anonymous Inter-

net user seeks to gain partial or total control of

a host. If buffer overflow vulnerabilities could

be effectively eliminated, a very large portion of

the most serious security threats would also be

eliminated. In this paper, we survey the various

types of buffer overflow vulnerabilities and

attacks, and survey the various defensive mea-

sures that mitigate buffer overflow vulnerabili-

ties, including our own StackGuard method. We

then consider which combinations of techniques

can eliminate the problem of buffer overflow

vulnerabilities, while preserving the functional-

ity and performance of existing systems

Download:

http://css.csail.mit.edu/6.858/2011/readings/buffer-overflows.pdf