Hunting Security Bugs

Chapter 8. Buffer Overflows and Stack and Heap Manipulation

In this chapter:
Understanding How Overflows Work
Testing for Overruns: Where to Look for Cases
Black Box (Functional) Testing
White Box Testing
Additional Topics
Testing Tips
Summary

Buffer overflows (also referred to as buffer overruns) are a specific class of array and numeric bounds errors. They are one of the longest-running, costliest security vulnerabilities known to affect computer software. Understanding the core concepts behind buffer overflows can be fun and rewarding.

What is a buffer overflow, exactly? In simple terms, most buffer overflows take place when the input is larger than the space allocated for it, but it is written there anyhow and memory is overwritten outside the allocated ...