What is a buffer overflow attack?

What will be an ideal response?


A buffer overflow attack exploits software vulnerabilities over which users and even network
security personnel have little or no control.  A buffer is a section of random access memory shared by application processes that depend on one another but operate at different speeds or with different priorities. A buffer's purpose is to coordinate data intended for use by separate activities. A critical buffer component for this coordination is the call or function stack, and buffer overflow attacks are usually aimed at this component. Such attacks are sometimes called stack-smashing attacks.  Buffer overflow attacks exploit a lack of "bounds checking" on the size of data stored in a buffer array. By writing data larger than the size allocated to an array, the attacker causes the buffer to overflow.

Computer Science & Information Technology

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