Overrun Of Stack Based Buffer

[Rosalia Hollingworth]

Some users has reported that they are prompted that the system detected an overrun of a stack-based buffer for odd reasons. In this post, you will fully learn about this issue and get several possible solutions provided by MiniTool Software.

Stack-based buffer overrun (or stack-based buffer overflow) is a kind of bug indicating that a program writes more data to a buffer located on the stack than that is actually allocated for the buffer. It is a general programming malfunction.

This kind of scan will help you remove malicious software that is difficult to remove, and it requires a restart to complete the process. It takes about 15 minutes and you should wait patiently until the scanning is finished.

In addition, the corrupted system files or Windows image files could also lead to buffer overrun detected on your computer. To fix stack-based buffer overrun issue in this case, you can try using System File Checker (SFC) and Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) utilities.

After the operation is completed successfully, exit the window and restart your computer. Then, check if the stack-based buffer overrun issue has been resolved. Besides, you can run the SFC scan again as your needs.

Step 4: Then, select a program and click Disable. Repeat the operation to other programs in the list to prevent these third-party apps from starting with the system and confirm changes.

After that, restart your computer to take effect the changes and the issue should have been resolved. By the way, you can re-enable these programs one by one to find out the problematic one and then keep it disabled or remove it.

If you have enabled System Protection feature to protect your computer and created a restore point at least before the stack-based buffer overrun issue occurs, perhaps you can try reverting your computer to a previous restore point to fix the problem.

Step 4: You will be required to confirm the restore point in the next page. Make sure all the tasks are saved and then click Finish button to execute this operation which needs to restart your computer to apply changes.

This tool will start diagnosing your computer and fix the detected potential problems that prevent it loading properly. The repair process will take some time to complete and you should wait patiently.

During the process, a log file named SrtTrail.txt is created and saved in the directory of C:WindowsSystem32LogFilesSrt. You can check it for the detailed information of this repair.

This is a last resort, as reinstalling Windows will result in data loss on the system disk. So, you have to backup or transfer the needed files in advance. If there are a large number of files you want to backup, the easiest way should be back up the entire disk. To achieve that, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard utility.

Step 5: Read the information about how to boot from the destination disk and click Finish. After back to the main interface, click Apply to execute the pending operation.

To do that, you can continue using the Windows installation media you create in previous mentioned method. After entering the Setup windows, please click Install now instead of Repair your computer, and then follow the given instructions to complete the installation.

Do you have any problems about this post? Or do you have any better methods to resolve the issue under our discussion? Please let us know. You can leave a message in the comment box below, or contact us via [email protected].

In software, a stack buffer overflow or stack buffer overrun occurs when a program writes to a memory address on the program's call stack outside of the intended data structure, which is usually a fixed-length buffer.[1][2]Stack buffer overflow bugs are caused when a program writes more data to a buffer located on the stack than what is actually allocated for that buffer. This almost always results in corruption of adjacent data on the stack, and in cases where the overflow was triggered by mistake, will often cause the program to crash or operate incorrectly. Stack buffer overflow is a type of the more general programming malfunction known as buffer overflow (or buffer overrun).[1] Overfilling a buffer on the stack is more likely to derail program execution than overfilling a buffer on the heap because the stack contains the return addresses for all active function calls.

A stack buffer overflow can be caused deliberately as part of an attack known as stack smashing. If the affected program is running with special privileges, or accepts data from untrusted network hosts (e.g. a webserver) then the bug is a potential security vulnerability. If the stack buffer is filled with data supplied from an untrusted user then that user can corrupt the stack in such a way as to inject executable code into the running program and take control of the process. This is one of the oldest and more reliable methods for attackers to gain unauthorized access to a computer.[3][4][5]

The canonical method for exploiting a stack-based buffer overflow is to overwrite the function return address with a pointer to attacker-controlled data (usually on the stack itself).[3][6] This is illustrated with strcpy() in the following example:

This code takes an argument from the command line and copies it to a local stack variable c. This works fine for command-line arguments smaller than 12 characters (as can be seen in figure B below). Any arguments larger than 11 characters long will result in corruption of the stack. (The maximum number of characters that is safe is one less than the size of the buffer here because in the C programming language, strings are terminated by a null byte character. A twelve-character input thus requires thirteen bytes to store, the input followed by the sentinel zero byte. The zero byte then ends up overwriting a memory location that's one byte beyond the end of the buffer.)

In figure C above, when an argument larger than 11 bytes is supplied on the command line foo() overwrites local stack data, the saved frame pointer, and most importantly, the return address. When foo() returns, it pops the return address off the stack and jumps to that address (i.e. starts executing instructions from that address). Thus, the attacker has overwritten the return address with a pointer to the stack buffer char c[12], which now contains attacker-supplied data. In an actual stack buffer overflow exploit the string of "A"'s would instead be shellcode suitable to the platform and desired function. If this program had special privileges (e.g. the SUID bit set to run as the superuser), then the attacker could use this vulnerability to gain superuser privileges on the affected machine.[3]

There are typically two methods that are used to alter the stored address in the stack - direct and indirect. Attackers started developing indirect attacks, which have fewer dependencies, in order to bypass protection measures that were made to reduce direct attacks.[7]

A number of platforms have subtle differences in their implementation of the call stack that can affect the way a stack buffer overflow exploit will work. Some machine architectures store the top-level return address of the call stack in a register. This means that any overwritten return address will not be used until a later unwinding of the call stack. Another example of a machine-specific detail that can affect the choice of exploitation techniques is the fact that most RISC-style machine architectures will not allow unaligned access to memory.[8] Combined with a fixed length for machine opcodes, this machine limitation can make the technique of jumping to the stack almost impossible to implement (with the one exception being when the program actually contains the unlikely code to explicitly jump to the stack register).[9][10]

Within the topic of stack buffer overflows, an often-discussed-but-rarely-seen architecture is one in which the stack grows in the opposite direction. This change in architecture is frequently suggested as a solution to the stack buffer overflow problem because any overflow of a stack buffer that occurs within the same stack frame cannot overwrite the return pointer. However, any overflow that occurs in a buffer from a previous stack frame will still overwrite a return pointer and allow for malicious exploitation of the bug.[11] For instance, in the example above, the return pointer for foo will not be overwritten because the overflow actually occurs within the stack frame for memcpy. However, because the buffer that overflows during the call to memcpy resides in a previous stack frame, the return pointer for memcpy will have a numerically higher memory address than the buffer. This means that instead of the return pointer for foo being overwritten, the return pointer for memcpy will be overwritten. At most, this means that growing the stack in the opposite direction will change some details of how stack buffer overflows are exploitable, but it will not reduce significantly the number of exploitable bugs.[citation needed]

Stack canaries, named for their analogy to a canary in a coal mine, are used to detect a stack buffer overflow before execution of malicious code can occur. This method works by placing a small integer, the value of which is randomly chosen at program start, in memory just before the stack return pointer. Most buffer overflows overwrite memory from lower to higher memory addresses, so in order to overwrite the return pointer (and thus take control of the process) the canary value must also be overwritten. This value is checked to make sure it has not changed before a routine uses the return pointer on the stack.[2] This technique can greatly increase the difficulty of exploiting a stack buffer overflow because it forces the attacker to gain control of the instruction pointer by some non-traditional means such as corrupting other important variables on the stack.[2]

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