SSPFA: effective stack smashing protection for Android OS

In this paper, we detail why the stack smashing protector (SSP), one of the most effective techniques to mitigate stack buffer overflow attacks, fails to protect the Android operating system and thus causes a false sense of security that affects all Android devices. We detail weaknesses of existing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of information security Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 519 - 532
Main Authors: Marco-Gisbert, Héctor, Ripoll-Ripoll, Ismael
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2019
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Buffers
Coding and Information Theory
Communications Engineering
Computer Communication Networks
Computer Science
Cryptology
Cybersecurity
Management of Computing and Information Systems
Mobile operating systems
Networks
Operating Systems
Protectors
Regular Contribution
Security
Windows operating system
Stack smashing protector
Mobile devices
Buffer overflow
Security
Defenses
Android
ISSN:1615-5262, 1615-5270
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this paper, we detail why the stack smashing protector (SSP), one of the most effective techniques to mitigate stack buffer overflow attacks, fails to protect the Android operating system and thus causes a false sense of security that affects all Android devices. We detail weaknesses of existing SSP implementations, revealing that current SSP is not secure. We propose SSPFA, the first effective and practical SSP for Android devices. SSPFA provides security against stack buffer overflows without changing the underlying architecture. SSPFA has been implemented and tested on several real devices showing that it is not intrusive, and it is binary-compatible with Android applications. Extensive empirical validation has been carried out over the proposed solution.
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ISSN:1615-5262
1615-5270
DOI:10.1007/s10207-018-00425-8