Friday, October 31, 2003

Buffer overflow still causes problems

Computerworld Australia reports that in the National Institute of Standards =20 and Technology=92s ICAT index of computer vulnerabilities, <A HREF="http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=3D169588207&fp=3D16&fpid=3D0">six of the top =20 10 involve buffer overflows</A>. In July 2000, it was discovered that=20 Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express let attackers compromise target=20 computers simply by sending email messages. No one even had to open a=20 message; as soon as the user downloaded the message, message-header=20 routines went into action =97 with unchecked buffers that could overflow and =20 trigger code execution. Even though Microsoft has fixed this vulnerability, =20 buffer overflow is still a major problem.

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