LXer: Preventing Stack Overflow Attacks
 

Published at LXer:

The use of special prologues and epilogues around functions can easily detect attacks that rely on stack overflows. Here is how "stack smashing" is actually performed and how its occurrence is detected.

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Here is another write up about stack buffer overflows which may be helpful for understanding how this type of attack works:
VERT Vuln School: Stack Buffer Overflows 101

Part 1: Introducing the Bug
Part 2: Explaining the Stack
Part 3: Exploiting the Bug

Thanks,
Craig