Automated Format String Attack Prevention for Win32/X86 Binaries

A format string attack exploits the fact that functions with a variable number of input arguments such as printf () determine the exact number of input arguments used in a call based on the format string argument, and compromises the victim application's address space by accessing data areas beyond the original input argument list the caller prepares. Although there have been several attempts that aim to protect application programs from format string attacks, all of them are limited in one way or another. Moreover, none of them has been applied to commercially distributed Win32 binaries.