Stack Buffer Overflow - Platform Related Differences

Platform Related Differences

A number of platforms have subtle differences in their implementation of the call stack that can affect the way a stack buffer overflow exploit will work. Some machine architectures store the top level return address of the call stack in a register. This means that any overwritten return address will not be used until a later unwinding of the call stack. Another example of a machine specific detail that can affect the choice of exploitation techniques is the fact that most RISC style machine architectures will not allow unaligned access to memory. Combined with a fixed length for machine opcodes this machine limitation can make the jump to ESP technique almost impossible to implement (with the one exception being when the program actually contains the unlikely code to explicitly jump to the stack register).

Read more about this topic:  Stack Buffer Overflow

Famous quotes containing the words platform, related and/or differences:

    It was a favor for which to be forever silent to be shown this vision. The earth beneath had become such a flitting thing of lights and shadows as the clouds had been before. It was not merely veiled to me, but it had passed away like the phantom of a shadow, skias onar, and this new platform was gained. As I had climbed above storm and cloud, so by successive days’ journeys I might reach the region of eternal day, beyond the tapering shadow of the earth.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    The content of a thought depends on its external relations; on the way that the thought is related to the world, not on the way that it is related to other thoughts.
    Jerry Alan Fodor (b. 1935)

    The differences between revolution in art and revolution in politics are enormous.... Revolution in art lies not in the will to destroy but in the revelation of what has already been destroyed. Art kills only the dead.
    Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)