System and method of foiling buffer-overflow and alien-code attacks
US7730322B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 14, 2003 |
| Grant date | Jun 1, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 21, 2025 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F21/79
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention relates generally to computer software, and more specifically, to a system and method of foiling buffer-overflow and alien-code attacks. The invention protects computers from such attacks by encoding data placed in storage, and varying the encodings used in different storage areas. When the data is needed by a software application, the data is simply decoded in a complementary manner. This prevents storage areas written according to one usage from being used effectively for some other purpose. The method of the invention can be done in a number of ways. For example, a “protector” engine can be placed between a software application and memory, or the function calls in the software application itself, could be amended to include encoding and decoding. Other embodiments and alternatives are also described.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.