CWE-121

A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function).

Common consequences

• Availability → Modify Memory, DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart, DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU), DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)
• Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability, Access Control → Modify Memory, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Bypass Protection Mechanism
• Integrity, Confidentiality, Availability, Access Control, Other → Modify Memory, Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands, Bypass Protection Mechanism, Other

Mitigations

• Operation, Build and Compilation: Use automatic buffer overflow detection mechanisms that are offered by certain compilers or compiler extensions. Examples include: the Microsoft Visual Studio /GS flag, Fedora/Red Hat FORTIFY_SOURCE GCC flag, StackGuard, and ProPolice, which provide various mechanisms including canary-based detection and range/index checking. D3-SFCV (Stack Frame Canary Validation
• Architecture and Design: Use an abstraction library to abstract away risky APIs. Not a complete solution.
• Implementation: Implement and perform bounds checking on input.
• Implementation: Do not use dangerous functions such as gets. Use safer, equivalent functions which check for boundary errors.
• Operation, Build and Compilation: Run or compile the software using features or extensions that randomly arrange the positions of a program's executable and libraries in memory. Because this makes the addresses unpredictable, it can prevent an attacker from reliably jumping to exploitable code. Examples include Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) [REF-58] [REF-60] and Position-Independent Ex