Buffer overflow

From Citizendium
Revision as of 11:54, 9 April 2007 by imported>Eric M Gearhart (First edit. Lots to add. Need to get ideas as I go along)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

In computers and computer security, a buffer overflow occurs when more data than was expected is written to a memory buffer than was intended by a programmer.

This error is the most common type of Computer security flaw that is used to run code on a remote machine unintentionally.

Other names for this attack include "buffer overrun" and "Smashing the Stack," both of which describe the concept.