Security Testing - Test for Buffer Overflows

Test for Buffer Overflows

One of the first security bugs exploited in computer history was a buffer overflow. Buffer overflows continue to be one of the most dangerous and most commonly occurring weaknesses. Attempts to exploit this type of vulnerability can result in problems ranging from crashing the application to an attacker inserting and executing malignant code in the application process.
When writing data to buffers, it is imperative that developers not write more to the buffer than it can possibly hold. If the amount of data being written exceeds the buffer space that has been allocated, a buffer overflow occurs. When a buffer overflow occurs, data is written into parts of memory that may be allocated for other purposes. A worst-case scenario is when the buffer overflow contains malicious code that is then executed. Buffer overflows account for a large percentage of security vulnerabilities.