Re: Linux Buffer Overflow Security Exploits

Horst von Brand (vonbrand@inf.utfsm.cl)
Thu, 04 Mar 1999 14:39:15 -0300

alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk (Alan Cox) said:
> "Sarah Addams" at Mar 3, 99 08:07:32 pm said:
> > Excuse my ignorance, but would someone explain to me why Linux and other =
> > Unices are vulnerable to buffer overflow exploits? I suspect it's =

> Because like basically all computers you don't have hardware type and
> size tags on all pointers. There are approaches to reduce the probability
> of that error but reading and checking code is the most productive. Logic
> errors tend to be as big a problem

I'd just add that this isn't a Unix-specific problem, _all_ operating
systems suffer it in one way or the other. It's just more visible for
Unix-like systems as more (source) code is shared and openly disussed.

-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                       mailto:vonbrand@inf.utfsm.cl
Departamento de Informatica                     Fono: +56 32 654431
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria              +56 32 654239
Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile                Fax:  +56 32 797513




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