Buffer Overflow
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions.
How It Works
A buffer overflow occurs when a program writes more data to a memory buffer than it was allocated to hold, causing the excess data to spill into adjacent memory regions. This overwrites whatever data or code exists there, corrupting program state and potentially giving attackers control over execution flow.
Stack-based overflows are the most common variant. When a function allocates a fixed-size buffer on the stack and then copies user-controlled input without proper bounds checking, attackers can overflow past the buffer to overwrite the function's return address. When the function completes, instead of returning to legitimate code, execution jumps to attacker-specified memory containing malicious shellcode. Heap-based overflows work differently—they corrupt heap metadata like chunk size fields or free list pointers, leading to arbitrary memory writes when the allocator processes the corrupted structures.
Modern exploitation bypasses defensive mechanisms through techniques like Return-Oriented Programming (ROP), which chains together existing code snippets to avoid non-executable memory protections. Attackers may also use heap spraying to reliably position shellcode at predictable addresses, defeating address randomization.
Impact
- Remote code execution — attacker gains ability to run arbitrary commands with the privileges of the vulnerable process
- Privilege escalation — exploiting kernel or setuid program overflows to gain root/SYSTEM access
- Denial of service — crashes and memory corruption that render systems unusable
- Information disclosure — reading sensitive data from adjacent memory regions that should be inaccessible
- Authentication bypass — overwriting security-critical variables like permission flags or user IDs
Real-World Examples
Fortinet FortiOS suffered a critical buffer overflow (CVE-2025-32756) that allowed unauthenticated remote attackers to execute code as root on firewalls and VPN gateways. Attackers actively exploited this to compromise enterprise network perimeters before patches were available.
The Slammer worm from 2003 exploited a stack overflow in Microsoft SQL Server, spreading to 75,000 hosts in ten minutes by sending a single malformed UDP packet that overwrote the return address with shellcode. No authentication was required.
OpenSSH historically contained a heap overflow in challenge-response authentication that allowed pre-authentication remote root compromise on Unix systems, demonstrating how memory corruption in privileged network services creates maximum impact scenarios.
Mitigation
- Memory-safe languages — Rust, Go, and modern managed languages prevent buffer overflows by design through automatic bounds checking
- Stack canaries — random values placed before return addresses that detect corruption before control transfer
- Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) — randomizes memory locations making exploitation less reliable
- Data Execution Prevention (DEP/NX) — marks memory regions as non-executable, preventing direct shellcode execution
- Bounds checking — validate input sizes before copying, use safe functions like
strncpyinstead ofstrcpy - Fuzzing and static analysis — automated testing to discover overflows before deployment
Recent CVEs (36524)
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.0), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.3). No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows SMB Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows USB Print Driver Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.0). No vendor patch available.
Windows Telephony Server Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows CSC Service Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Distributed File System (DFS) Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft WDAC SQL Server ODBC Driver Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Microsoft WDAC OLE DB provider for SQL Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Remote Access Connection Manager Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
DHCP Server Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
DHCP Server Service Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.0), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) Remote Code Execution Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Windows DWM Core Library Information Disclosure Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
Secure Boot Security Feature Bypass Vulnerability. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.1), this vulnerability is no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
A vulnerability has been identified in JT2Go (All versions < V2312.0004), Parasolid V35.1 (All versions < V35.1.254), Parasolid V36.0 (All versions < V36.0.207), Parasolid V36.1 (All versions <. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.3), this vulnerability is no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
JGraphT Core v1.5.2 was discovered to contain a NullPointerException via the component org.jgrapht.alg.util.ToleranceDoubleComparator::compare(Double, Double). Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.2), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
JFreeChart v1.5.4 was discovered to contain a NullPointerException via the component /chart/annotations/CategoryLineAnnotation. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.1), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Apfloat v1.10.1 was discovered to contain a stack overflow via the component org.apfloat.internal.DoubleModMath::modPow(double. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
ThreeTen Backport v1.6.8 was discovered to contain an integer overflow via the component org.threeten.bp.format.DateTimeFormatter::parse(CharSequence, ParsePosition). No vendor patch available.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ksmbd: validate payload size in ipc response If installing malicious ksmbd-tools, ksmbd.mountd can return invalid ipc response to. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability could allow attackers to write data beyond allocated buffer boundaries leading to code execution or crashes.
In the Opaque LSA Extended Link parser in FRRouting (FRR) through 9.1, there can be a buffer overflow and daemon crash in ospf_te_parse_ext_link for OSPF LSA packets during an attempt to read Segment. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Buffer Copy without Size Check vulnerability could allow attackers to overflow a buffer to corrupt adjacent memory.
In FRRouting (FRR) through 9.1, there can be a buffer overflow and daemon crash in ospf_te_parse_ri for OSPF LSA packets during an attempt to read Segment Routing subTLVs (their size is not. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.5), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Buffer Copy without Size Check vulnerability could allow attackers to overflow a buffer to corrupt adjacent memory.
Inappropriate implementation in V8 in Google Chrome prior to 123.0.6312.105 allowed a remote attacker to potentially perform out of bounds memory access via a crafted HTML page. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
IBM Personal Communications 14.0.6 through 15.0.1 includes a Windows service that is vulnerable to remote code execution (RCE) and local privilege escalation (LPE). Rated critical severity (CVSS 10.0), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A buffer overflow vulnerability was reported in the HTTPS service of some Lenovo Printers that could result in denial of service. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.9), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_get_tr_thresholds, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.7), this vulnerability is no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_get_tr_num_thresholds of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In afe_callback of q6afe.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a buffer overflow. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_get_pi of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds read due to improper input validation. Rated medium severity (CVSS 4.4), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In TMU_IPC_GET_TABLE, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 6.2), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_set_control_temp_step of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a missing bounds check. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.7), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_set_tr_num_thresholds of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a missing bounds check. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In km_exp_did_inner of kmv.c, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_set_tr_thresholds of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a missing bounds check. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.4), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In _dvfs_get_lv of dvfs.c, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing null check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.9), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In lpm_req_handler of lpm.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to improper input validation. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.4), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_get_gov_time_windows, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_set_temp_lut of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a missing bounds check. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.7), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In apply_minlock_constraint of dvfs.c, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_set_table of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds write due to a missing bounds check. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.4), this vulnerability is no authentication required. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_get_temp_lut of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In gov_init, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In tmu_get_tr_stats of tmu.c, there is a possible out of bounds read due to a missing bounds check. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.9), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Due to length check, an attacker with privilege access on a Linux Nonsecure operating system can trigger a vulnerability and leak the secure memory from the Trusted Application. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.7), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
NVIDIA CUDA toolkit for all platforms contains a vulnerability in cuobjdump and nvdisasm where an attacker may cause a crash by tricking a user into reading a malformed ELF file. Rated low severity (CVSS 3.3), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
A heap overflow vulnerability in IPSec component of Ivanti Connect Secure (9.x, 22.x) and Ivanti Policy Secure allows an unauthenticated malicious user to send specially crafted requests in-order-to. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Public exploit code available and no vendor patch available.
A heap overflow vulnerability in IPSec component of Ivanti Connect Secure (9.x 22.x) and Ivanti Policy Secure allows an unauthenticated malicious user to send specially crafted requests in-order-to. Rated high severity (CVSS 8.2), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Out-Of-Bounds Write, Use of Uninitialized Resource and Use-After-Free vulnerabilities exist in the file reading procedure in eDrawings from Release SOLIDWORKS 2023 through Release SOLIDWORKS 2024. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
Out-Of-Bounds Write and Type Confusion vulnerabilities exist in the file reading procedure in eDrawings from Release SOLIDWORKS 2023 through Release SOLIDWORKS 2024. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is no authentication required, low attack complexity. No vendor patch available.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: Both cadence-quadspi ->runtime_suspend() and ->runtime_resume() implementations start with: struct cqspi_st *cqspi =. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability could allow attackers to write data beyond allocated buffer boundaries leading to code execution or crashes.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: drm/amd/display: Prevent potential buffer overflow in map_hw_resources Adds a check in the map_hw_resources function to prevent a. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Buffer Copy without Size Check vulnerability could allow attackers to overflow a buffer to corrupt adjacent memory.
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: riscv: Sparse-Memory/vmemmap out-of-bounds fix Offset vmemmap so that the first page of vmemmap will be mapped to the first page of. Rated medium severity (CVSS 5.5), this vulnerability is low attack complexity.