Return-to-libc attack

A "return-to-libc" attack is a computer security attack usually starting with a buffer overflow in which a subroutine return address on a call stack is replaced by an address of a subroutine that is already present in the process executable memory, bypassing the no-execute bit feature (if present) and ridding the attacker of the need to inject their own code. The first example of this attack in the wild was contributed by Alexander Peslyak on the Bugtraq mailing list in 1997.

Return-to-libc attack

A "return-to-libc" attack is a computer security attack usually starting with a buffer overflow in which a subroutine return address on a call stack is replaced by an address of a subroutine that is already present in the process executable memory, bypassing the no-execute bit feature (if present) and ridding the attacker of the need to inject their own code. The first example of this attack in the wild was contributed by Alexander Peslyak on the Bugtraq mailing list in 1997.