Improving Memory Management Security for C and C++

Memory managers are an important part of any modern language: they are used to dynamically allocate memory for use in the program. Many managers exist and depending on the operating system and language. However, two major types of managers can be identified: manual memory allocators and garbage collectors. In the case of manual memory allocators, the programmer must manually release memory back to the system when it is no longer needed. Problems can occur when a programmer forgets to release it (memory leaks), releases it twice or keeps using freed memory. These problems are solved in garbage collectors. However, both manual memory allocators and garbage collectors store management information for the memory they manage. Often, this management information is stored where a buffer overflow could allow an attacker to overwrite this information, providing a reliable way to achieve code execution when exploiting these vulnerabilities. In this paper we describe several vulnerabilities for ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: IJSSE
• Authors: Yves Younan, Wouter Joosen, Frank Piessens, Hans Van den Eynden
• Keywords: IJSSE 2010, Management Information, Managers, Manual Memory Allocator