Buffer overflows

Jon at xxx.com Jon at xxx.com
Thu Jul 26 07:56:53 BST 2001


Here's something that has been bothering me for ages and I have 
not managed to get a satisfactory answer to even on an OpenBSD 
mailing list. It applies equally to MS Windows.

Why does a process typically have areas of memory which are 
both writeable and executable ?

Without them buffer overflow exploits would be rather more difficult. 
Most modern processors (certainly 286 upwards) have fine enough 
control in their MMUs to sort this problem out.

Jon Schneider
Jon at AxisMilton dot Ltd dot Uk
http://www.axismilton.ltd.uk




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