Hello, friends. We’re going to talk about Buffer Overflow. Like – What is buffer overflow? How does it have an impact on your services or other things as well? It’s like an exploitation attack that gives a chance to the attacker to install malware on the victim’s devices.
However, there are so many things that you need to know about Buffer Overflow. Such practices can help the attacker to gain access to a lot of resources on the victim’s side. What are you waiting for? Let’s continue!
A Buffer Overflow Attack
It’s a kind of exploitation attack that supports the adversary to take benefit of an application’s security flaws to flood a data buffer which can result in malicious code execution.
Moreover, it is usually used to access systems, which can allow hackers to
- Install Malicious Software,
- View or Modify the Data, and
- Create a DoS condition.
Now that you know which kind of activities can happen due to a Buffer Overflow Attack, let’s talk about the Threats that can be caused by it.
Buffer Overflow Threat
Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks:
DoS attacks can create disruption in providing specific services. Most of the potential targets of these attacks are
- Websites,
- Networks,
- Services, or
- Other Online Resources.
In addition to that, common methods used to execute DoS Attacks include
- Flooding a System with Traffic,
- Exploiting Security Flaws, or
- Exploiting Existing Vulnerabilities in a System’s Software.
The objective behind DoS attacks is to flood a system/ service to make it unable for authorized users to use it.
Code Execution:
It’s the process of executing a program/ script written in a computing language.
The process of Code Execution involves
- Taking the code written by a developer,
- Compiling it, and
- Executing it to create the desired output.
The process of software development, it’s the last step, and it’s done on a PC/ Device.
Access Control Bypasses:
It’s the technique to bypass security measures that are deployed to control access to a system/ resource. Such methods can involve
- Exploiting loopholes in the Access Control System,
- Using default or weak passwords, or
- Using Social Engineering Methods.
This method can be used to get illegitimate access to a system/ resource, which can cause serious security risks.
Types of Buffer Overflow Attacks
Stack-Based Buffer Overflow:
It’s a kind of software loophole that exploits a buffer overflow to stop the execution stack of a system’s feature. In the Stack-Based Buffer Overflow Exploit, the adversary sends data that are huge than the allocated buffer, which then overwrites adjacent memory locations.
Due to this, programs can crash. If the adversary is savvy, then the one can inject malicious code into the program and run it.
Heap-Based Buffer Overflow:
It’s a kind of memory corruption that happens when a program writes more data to a heap-allocated buffer than the buffer can handle. Due to that, adjacent memory locations can be overwritten, which can lead to a crash/ remote code execution. These are less detectable.
Format String Attacks:
It’s a kind of attack that get benefits from the programming languages that handle input. Due to these attacks, the adversary injects malicious code into a vulnerable app, which can afterward be used to access confidential data/ cause a system crash. These attacks support bypassing authentication, execution of arbitrary code, and modification of data stored in memory.
Buffer Overflow Attack Examples
- Such an attack involves
- Sending malicious code in input string format and
- After that, which the vulnerable app will run.
- An adversary can also exploit a buffer overflow loophole in an app by sending specially built data packets/ malicious code strings to the app. Ultimately, the app will crash/ attacker will execute arbitrary code.
- There’s one more way to exploit a buffer overflow loophole you can create malware to send a huge amount of data to a potential app. Afterward, the app tries to process the data, causing buffer overflow and execution of malicious code.
How to Prevent Buffer Overflows
Performing Input Validation:
It’s the process of validation of the details provided by the user to the system before authentication. Such a process can include
- Checking for Valid Formats,
- Valid Values,
- Valid Lengths, and
- Other Criteria.
It’s a must to perform input validation to ensure the system is in a perfect state of work.
Enabling Runtime Memory Protection:
It’s a security tool that supports protecting against malware attacks by validating the connection of memory blocks in real time.
This tech supports in prevention of malicious execution via adversary through
- Malicious Code Execution,
- Data Tampering,
- Operating malicious operations by validating the connection of memory blocks, and
- System Alerts!
It also prevents memory-based attacks such as
- Buffer overflow,
- Use-After-Free, and
- Double-Free Attacks.
Avoiding Vulnerable Functions:
It’s a security practice involving identification and avoiding functions/ codes known as security flaws. This process is important for securing coding to prevent adversaries from exploiting the application loopholes. It also involves research & understanding of the potential risks of any functions used in the code before implementation.
Using Memory-Safe Languages:
It’s the process of writing codes in a language with built-in safety checks to protect against memory-related issues. Such languages use
- automatic memory management,
- type checking, and
- other features to prevent memory-related errors, such as
- buffer overflows,
- dangling pointers, and
- segmentation faults
Ex – memory-safe languages include – Java, C#, Rust, and Go.
Preventing Vulnerability Exploitation:
Additional measures may include regularly scanning systems for threats and vulnerabilities, deploying firewalls and other security systems, and monitoring network traffic.
It involves a combo of security measures, such as
- Patch Management,
- Secure Configuration, and
- User Awareness Training.
Moreover, it involves
- Regular Software Updates,
- Operating Systems, and
- Applications to Fix Loopholes.
Ensure all systems are properly configured to lessen the attack surface. In addition to that, awareness training can help in the identification and avoidance
- Phishing Attacks,
- Malware Attacks, and
- Other Malicious Attempts.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the Buffer Overflow
- What are two types of buffer overflow attacks?
- Stack-based buffer overflow attacks – Such attacks can happen when a cybercriminal tries to overwrite to the extent of limited space in a memory buffer. Then it can corrupt adjacent memory locations & can allow arbitrary code execution.
- Heap-based buffer overflow attacks – Such attacks can happen due to the overload of data packets sent by an adversary, which can corrupt other legitimate data & allow arbitrary code execution.
- Why is buffer overflow a vulnerability?
That’s because an adversary can overwrite memory locations consisting of confidential data/ code. It can cause various damages to the system, such as
- Code Execution,
- Data Corruption, and
- System Crashes.
Attackers can exploit such vulnerabilities.
- What is a buffer overflow, also known as?
It is also known as buffer overrun/ overrun buffer.
- How does a buffer overflow attack work?
It happens when an adversary inputs a huge amount of data than the limit. That can cause
- buffer overflow,
- overwriting adjacent memory locations, and
- potentially corrupting/ overwriting data.
The unauthorized user can execute malicious code into the system that allows them to
- access system,
- execute codes, and
- cause a system crash
5.What do Attackers use buffer overflows for?
Adversaries have various kinds of reasons to use buffer overflows. Some of them are as follows
- Arbitrary Code,
- Injecting Malicious Code
- Hijacking Control of a process/ process/ crashing systems.
6.What is buffer stack overflow?
It’s a kind of buffer overflow attack that allows users to overflow a program’s call stack with malicious data. When the app tries to run codes from the malicious data, causing the program crashes/overwrites other memory parts. That could allow adversaries to access the program.
- Are web servers vulnerable to buffer overflows?
Definitely! Web servers are exploitable via buffer overflows. Buffer Overflow can happen due to an overload of data transfer to a webserver causing the server to crash/adversaries accessing the system.
To prevent overflows, web servers should have limitations over data transfer and should use secure coding to ensure data validation and sanitization.