Protecting Programs Against Memory Violation In Hardware

Author

Lemos Maia Neto, Antonio ; Terra Cunha Melo, Leandro ; Paranaiba Vilela Neto, Omar ; Quintao Pereira, Fernando Magno ; Barbosa Oliveira, Leonardo

Author_Institution

Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Volume

13

Issue

3

fYear

2015

fDate

Mar-15

Firstpage

885

Lastpage

891

Abstract

The C and C++ programming languages do not prevent ouf-of-bounds memory access, consequently leaving room to attacks such as buffer overflow and buffer overread. There are several techniques to make C programs safe. However these methods are usually implemented via software and tend to cause performance degradation. Our work aims at a hardware solution which is able to check bounds efficiently, by providing novel instructions that are aware of a buffer´s valid memory range. Whenever a violation is found the program will terminate, a typical hardware exception behavior.

Keywords

security of data; storage management; C programming language; C++ programming language; buffer overflow attack; buffer overread attack; hardware exception behavior; memory range; memory violation; ouf-of-bounds memory access; program protection; Abstracts; Buffer overflows; Hardware; Internet; Pipelines; Registers; Software; Buffer Overflow; Buffer Overread; Code Security; Memory Violation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Latin America Transactions, IEEE (Revista IEEE America Latina)

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1548-0992

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TLA.2015.7069119

Filename

7069119