Secure Programming with Static Analysis

7. Bride of Buffer Overflow

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

–SUN TZU

Not every buffer overflow is caused by errors in string manipulation, nor can every buffer overflow be prevented through judicious use of safer string-manipulation functions. An integer overflow occurs when an integral value is increased or decreased beyond its capacity. Integer overflow errors are frequently an attacker’s springboard to a buffer overflow. In many ways, buffer overflows are all about numbers. Numbers determine how much memory to allocate, control the bounds for string operations, and are used to calculate offsets for indexing memory. Likewise, not every countermeasure against buffer ...