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Is there an example program that illustrates how a buffer overflow attack actually executes arbitrary code? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/programming

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I've found lots of examples in C of programs illustrating buffer Overflows, including those of pointer rewrites which has been of great help in understanding how a buffer overflow works and memory safety etc. but I've yet to be able to find an example illustrating how such a buffer overflow can rewrite a pointer in such a way that it actually results in code execution?

Is this just not a thing, or is my google-fu rust y? Tried ChatGPT and my local Mistral and they both seem unable to spit out precisely what I'm asking, so maybe I'm wording this question wrong.

If anyone in here knows, could point me in the right direction? Thanks y'all btw love this community 🧡

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

@LainTrain Yes, but "in practice" this simple approach worked 20 years ago. Modern processors, compilers and operating systems make exploitation of stack buffer overflows a lot more difficult.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

That's fine, I think for my purposes it's better to start simple with the basic concept of it first, then add complexity by learning about the protections and how they have/could be circumvented.