buffer overflow

buffer overflow
 n.

   What happens when you try to stuff more data into a buffer (holding
   area) than it can handle. This problem is commonly exploited by
   {cracker}s to get arbitrary commands executed by a program running
   with root permissions. This may be due to a mismatch in the processing
   rates of the producing and consuming processes (see {overrun} and
   {firehose syndrome}), or because the buffer is simply too small to
   hold all the data that must accumulate before a piece of it can be
   processed. For example, in a text-processing tool that {crunch}es a
   line at a time, a short line buffer can result in {lossage} as input
   from a long line overflows the buffer and trashes data beyond it. Good
   defensive programming would check for overflow on each character and
   stop accepting data when the buffer is full up. The term is used of
   and by humans in a metaphorical sense. "What time did I agree to meet
   you? My buffer must have overflowed." Or "If I answer that phone my
   buffer is going to overflow." See also {spam}, {overrun screw}.
    

buffer overflow
buffer overrun

   <programming> What happens when you try to store more data in
   a {buffer} than it can handle.  This may be due to a mismatch
   in the processing rates of the producing and consuming
   processes (see {overrun} and {firehose syndrome}), or because
   the buffer is simply too small to hold all the data that must
   accumulate before a piece of it can be processed.  For
   example, in a text-processing tool that {crunch}es a line at a
   time, a short line buffer can result in {lossage} as input
   from a long line overflows the buffer and overwrites data
   beyond it.  Good defensive programming would check for
   overflow on each character and stop accepting data when the
   buffer is full.

   See also {spam}, {overrun screw}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1996-05-13)