Bugtraq mailing list archives

fixing all buffer overflows --- random magin numbers


From: joel () EXC COM (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman)
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 21:37:00 EDT


I was thinking --- it wouldn't be too hard to make buffer overflow
attacks impossible.  The basic idea is to do away with binary
compatibility.

In particular, I was thinking that part of building a kernel would
involve assigning a random number to each syscall, and creating a
syscall.h file with these random numbers.  A binary would only run if
it was compiled with the proper syscall.h, so all binaries would have
to be recompiled for the new kernel, but then, syscall.h could be
removed, and the system would be impervious to buffer overflow
attacks.  (One step further would involve random magic numbers in
every function call.)

I would be happy to give up binary compatilibyt for the added security
it would add.

Comments?

-Joel Hoffman
(joel () exc com)


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