Re: StackGuard with ... Re: [Paper] Format bugs.

["Dick St.Peters" <stpeters () NETHEAVEN COM>]

Greg A. Woods writes:
> A true fix requires something that would change the language definition
> in a more fundamental way.  I think the best idea would be to revise the
> calling conventions used for functions with variable numbers of
> arguments (or perhaps all functions) and defining a new varargs/stdards
> API (complete with error handling) that can be made a part of the
> language definition such that a function can discern, at run time, the
> number of, and type of, parameters it was called with. ...

The DEC VAX had an argument count as part of the hardware architecture.

I found this argument count very useful in a stack-walking program in
about 1982 ...

Providing a would-be cracker with additional information like argument
counts (or, I'll venture, argument types) is not much of a solution.

--
Dick St.Peters, stpeters () NetHeaven com
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