Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Security Handbook

Buffer Overflows

The art of overflowing buffers is a time-tested attacker tool for breaking software. There are numerous patches and attempts to fix the problem, but every week it seems a new overflow is released for a program.

To begin, I explain all the concepts involved in buffer overflows, and then I go over how they work, how they are exploited, and how they can be closed.

What Is a Buffer Overflow?

There are two classes of buffer overflows. The most common by far is a stack-based buffer overflow. The other class of buffer overflow is a heap-based overflow. Because stack-based overflows are the most common, I cover them in the greatest detail here.

To understand buffer overflows, you must first understand how memory works on an Intel microprocessor, ...