The Neverending Story: Memory Corruption 30 Years Later

Abstract

Memory errors have been present in software for more than three decades now, leading to numerous security issues. Low-level languages like C and C++ that are prone to this class of errors are in widespread use, meaning that a large number of current systems are susceptible to attacks that target memory corruption vulnerabilities. Therefore, hardening programs and protecting against this type of attacks is of the utmost importance to build secure systems. This paper explains the basis of memory errors and their characteristics, analyzes the huge research effort that has been carried out in relation to memory error detection, exploitation and attack prevention, and depicts the most relevant approaches in this area.