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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