Exploiting a buffer overflow using metasploit framework

  • Authors:

  • Mustapha Refai

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), Canada

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 2006 International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust: Bridge the Gap Between PST Technologies and Business Services
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Buffer overflow has been used for many years as an effective mean for system penetration to gain remote access [2, 3, 5, 6, 7]. Buffer overflow exploitation takes advantage of weak software programming such as boundary check for memory usage of declared buffers somewhere in the program to undermine software security and exploit its vulnerability so that attacker can remotely access victim's system. This access can be then escalated either vertical, to gain administrator privilege (in case of windows operating system, or root access, in case UNIX like operating system), or horizontal to access other host in the same network. This paper will try to address the question of, what buffer overflow is. How it happens? How it can be exploited? And what are the defense measures that can be taken to avoid such a problem? As a response to the above questions, a discussion about available commercial and open source software that are used as tools for exploitation are covered. The widely used open source software called Metasploit Framework is used to demonstrate the concept.