Buffer Overflow Vulnerability Exploitation Using Open-Source Tools

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of buffer overflow vulnerabilities. During an exploitation of such vulnerability, the attacker uses basic concepts of programming and networking technology to get access to the target machine. Two aspects are worth mentioning: the first one is that the attack was created for teaching purposes and secondly, perhaps more important, the tools used are free and anyone can access them. Obviously, attacks on computer systems can be very complex but as you will discover this attack can be implemented without much effort. I insist on this idea to show that an attacker does not have to be highly trained. Therefore I want to emphasize the importance of security to all users. As a summary, this demonstrates, that following well-defined steps a malevolent person can exploit vulnerabilities detected. It starts with running a scan for vulnerabilities against the network. Reviewing the report generated, the presence of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) should be noted. Going further, it develops the main attack. The success of the attack is confirmed by access to Command Prompt in Windows operating system of the targeted machine.

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