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Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities

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On Fri, 26 Feb 2016 13:38:42 GMT
anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) wrote:

> A frequent source of vulnerabilities in C is buffer overflows: A
> memory access can happen outside the bounds of an array or otherwise
> outside the bounds of an object (C terminology, in Forth standard
> terminology the relevant term is "contiguous region"); the classic
> case is to have a store that overwrites the return address adjacent to
> the buffer and leads to arbitrary code execution (in Forth return
> addresses are typically not close to buffers, but just consider a
> variable or field containing an xt close to the buffer, so Forth is
> not immune to that).  Or the buffer overflow could be a memory fetch
> of data that is then sent to the attacker (the heartbleed
> vulnerability was of this type, helped along by overzealous
> "optimization").
>

Buffer overflows work in C because C uses a combined data stack and
return stack, i.e., stack frame.  You'd need to ban manipulation of
the return stack in Forth.  Forth words in the dictionary, while
they may contain an XT, are not buffers that can be written to
and overflowed via input and print string functions.  Preventing the
Forth dictionary from being written to would solve the adjacent XT
overwrite problem.


Rod Pemberton

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Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-02-26 13:38 +0000
  Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2016-02-26 16:05 +0000
  Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Rod Pemberton <NoHaveNotOne@bcczxcfre.cmm> - 2016-02-26 17:18 -0500
    Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Raimond Dragomir <raimond.dragomir@gmail.com> - 2016-02-26 22:53 -0800
    Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-02-27 07:15 +0000
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-02-27 04:54 -0600
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2016-02-27 14:27 +0000
        Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-02-27 15:31 +0000
          Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2016-03-01 16:30 +0000
            Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-03-02 10:04 +0000
              Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Doug Hoffman <glidedog@gmail.com> - 2016-03-02 08:41 -0500
              Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2016-03-02 23:22 +0000
                Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities humptydumpty <ouatubi@gmail.com> - 2016-03-02 22:57 -0800
                Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-03-03 13:50 +0000
                Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2016-03-04 21:01 +0000
                Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-03-06 10:55 +0000
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Rod Pemberton <NoHaveNotOne@bcczxcfre.cmm> - 2016-02-27 11:31 -0500
        Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-02-27 17:14 +0000
  Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2016-02-27 18:59 +0200
    Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-02-27 17:04 +0000
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Ron Aaron <rambamist@gmail.com> - 2016-02-27 19:18 +0200
        Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-02-28 14:21 +0000
  Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2016-03-02 21:18 -1000
    Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2016-03-03 10:23 +0000
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-03-03 14:22 +0000
    Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-03-03 04:53 -0600
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2016-03-03 13:15 +0000
        Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-03-04 04:34 -0600
          Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-03-04 04:56 -0600
            Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2016-03-04 12:07 +0000
              Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-03-04 09:48 -0600
              Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-03-04 17:11 +0000
          Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Albert van der Horst <albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl> - 2016-03-04 11:55 +0000
    Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-03-03 11:33 +0000
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Rod Pemberton <NoHaveNotOne@bcczxcfre.cmm> - 2016-03-04 20:55 -0500
    Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities Mark Wills <markwills1970@gmail.com> - 2016-03-05 02:55 -0800
      Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities "Elizabeth D. Rather" <erather@forth.com> - 2016-03-10 22:39 -0800
        Re: Avoiding memory access vulnerabilities anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2016-03-12 12:44 +0000

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