Consequences
An accidental overflow may result in data corruption or unexpected behavior by any process which uses the affected memory area. On operating systems without memory protection, this could be any process on the system.
A deliberate exploit may result in data at a specific location being altered in an arbitrary way, or in arbitrary code being executed.
The Microsoft JPEG GDI+ vulnerability MS04-028 is an example of the danger a heap overflow can represent to a computer user.
iOS jailbreaking often uses Heap overflows to gain arbitrary code, usually for kernel exploits to achieve the ability to replace the kernel with the one jailbreak provides.
Read more about this topic: Heap Overflow
Famous quotes containing the word consequences:
“The horror of Gandhi’s murder lies not in the political motives behind it or in its consequences for Indian policy or for the future of non-violence; the horror lies simply in the fact that any man could look into the face of this extraordinary person and deliberately pull a trigger.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“There is not much that even the most socially responsible scientists can do as individuals, or even as a group, about the social consequences of their activities.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)