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Memory leaks
Hello, of a truth memory leaks are not good, but how dangerous can they be? Can a cracker use it to read some information hidden in your programme's memory space? What other ways can leaks be taken advantage of?
Aceix.
Aceix.
Memory leaks don't cause security vulnerabilities. They just make your program consume more and more memory over time. If let run long enough, a program consuming extreme amounts of memory can slow down a computer's overall performance.
> memory leaks are not good, but how dangerous can they be?
Extremely dangerous in kernel-mode code; an exploit can be devastating.
Dangerous in non-privileged server code; executing a DoS attack against a server that leaks memory can be quite easy.
Fairly inconsequential in short-lived programs in non-privileged mode.
Extremely dangerous in kernel-mode code; an exploit can be devastating.
Dangerous in non-privileged server code; executing a DoS attack against a server that leaks memory can be quite easy.
Fairly inconsequential in short-lived programs in non-privileged mode.
> do OS limit the amount of memory assigned to a programme?
By itself, the kernel does not limit total memory used by individual processes; it just trims process working set sizes using a leaky bucket algorithm.
Typical desktop and server operating systems support enforcement of resource limits; it is up to the sysadmin to configure the quotas.
For instance: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/security-resourcelimits.html
By itself, the kernel does not limit total memory used by individual processes; it just trims process working set sizes using a leaky bucket algorithm.
Typical desktop and server operating systems support enforcement of resource limits; it is up to the sysadmin to configure the quotas.
For instance: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/security-resourcelimits.html
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