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Control Hijacking

Control hijacking occurs when an attacker overwrites parts of a program to change its output. This can be prevented by dividing programs into small parts and checking output at each step to identify any changes introduced by attackers. Common types of control hijacking attacks are buffer overflow attacks, integer overflow attacks, and format string vulnerabilities. Defense mechanisms against control hijacking include platform defenses like memory protection and control flow integrity monitoring, as well as runtime defenses that restrict program execution and memory access.

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24 views4 pages

Control Hijacking

Control hijacking occurs when an attacker overwrites parts of a program to change its output. This can be prevented by dividing programs into small parts and checking output at each step to identify any changes introduced by attackers. Common types of control hijacking attacks are buffer overflow attacks, integer overflow attacks, and format string vulnerabilities. Defense mechanisms against control hijacking include platform defenses like memory protection and control flow integrity monitoring, as well as runtime defenses that restrict program execution and memory access.

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utsavarora1912
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Control Hijacking

The mechanism in which the attacker starts overwriting a few lines of the
program, in such a way that the output of the program becomes incorrect.
And later on, the output changes with respect to the program and is
called control hijacking.

Control Hijacking

The solution to the above problem is to divide the program into small parts.
And check the output of the program at every step, due to which all the
output will never be incorrect at the same time. Hence, lines of the program
overwritten by the attacker can easily be traced after which the error can also
be removed.
Types of Control Hijacking Attacks
 Buffer Overflow Attack
 Integer Overflow Attack
 Format String Vulnerabilities

1. Buffer Overflow Attack:


In a computer, the memory organization includes read-only memory (ROM)
and random access memory (RAM), and extra space in memory called a
buffer.The situation when a program execution starts in such a way that
during the execution the entire memory space is full and slowly the buffer
starts overflowing, at this instant immediately the hacker attacks the overflow
data and therefore extracts the information from the memory is called a
buffer overflow attack.
Buffer Overflow

The solution to the problem is that always specify the memory space before
the execution of the program, as a result, the execution of the program will
stop when the specified memory space is full and therefore the condition of
overflow is avoided.
Hence, the memory can be protected from hacker attacks.
Types of Buffer overflow attack:
1. Stack Based Buffer Overflow
2. Heap Based Buffer Overflow

Stack Based Overflow & Heap Based Overflow

 Stack-Based Buffer Overflow: The condition when the different location


of stack memory starts overflowing and the data at that memory location
can be easily hacked by the hacker. This method is easy to implement
and information can be extracted easily. The solution is to initialize the
memory location before the program executes. So, that overflow can be
prevented and data can be protected.
 Heap-Based Buffer Overflow: The condition when the entire memory
starts overflowing can be hacked easily and is called a heap-based buffer
overflow. This condition normally doesn’t exist, or else the entire memory
of the computer will crash.
The solution is to prevent the overflow by specifying the memory location as
a result the execution will stop and data will be saved.
2. Integer Overflow Attack
The integer overflow occurs when the output of the program is in the form of
integers. So, that no. of digits in output exceeds the range and results in
overflow which is attacked by the hacker. This process of extraction of
information is called an integer overflow attack.
The solution again is to change the output to less number of bits. Hence, the
overflow is prevented and information is safe.
3. Format String Vulnerabilities
This condition occurs when the output of the program is in form of special
characters called strings. So, these characters start overflowing and
information can be easily hacked by the attacker which is called format string
vulnerabilities.
The solution is to specify the output in standard string format where every
string has fewer characters, then the overflow can be prevented.

How To Prevent Control Hijacking?

Defense against control hijacking is a method used to prevent the impact of


control hijacking attacks. Control hijacking attacks are a type of cyber attack
where the attacker takes control of a program’s execution flow and directs it
to malicious code, which can result in a wide range of security issues,
system manipulation, and further exploitation.
Types of defense mechanisms against control hijacking attacks include:
1. Platform Defence
The mechanism of which the approach is to protect the information in terms
of the hardware of the computer including the memory architecture, different
types of pointers, many methods to
implement flow of the program.
The platform defense has the following approaches:
 Memory Architecture Protection: In this approach, the idea is to protect
the entire memory architecture in such a way that the space of memory
which is not defined should never be accessed. The execution of the
program should occupy minimum space in the memory, preferably the
buffer space of memory shouldn’t be used along with the required
memory space should be used in the minimum quantity during the
operation of the device. Therefore, the above method can protect the
memory in all respect.
 Code Pointer Integrity (CPI): The approach in which different types of
pointers are used during the execution of a program can hint the hacker
to interfere in the main execution process for which all the pointers need
to be protected under this method called code pointer integrity (CPI),
along with this CPI also has the method of isolating the pointers called
as code pointer separation (CPS), which means CPI and CPS work
together.
 Code Flow Integrity (CFI): The approach in which there’s the execution
of interrupt in between the main program. So, that flow of the program
should again reach the main program but it can be attacked by the
attacker, to protect this the CFI is used in order to correct the output.

2. Runtime Defence
Step 1: Protect the memory from unwanted access.
Step 2: Use standard antivirus and firewall.
Step 3: Allow execution in a given space.
Step 4: Use allocated space in memory.
Step 5: Minimum execution time of the program.
Step 6: Prevent buffer space.
Step 7: End the program for complete execution.
The runtime defense mechanism deals with the flow of the program from one
end to another where the execution is done in the allocated space along with
the minimum time of execution in the given hardware and software part after
which the program is ended, in order to complete the execution process.

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