Is python buffer overflow proof?

Steven D'Aprano steven at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au
Mon Aug 3 23:44:54 EDT 2009


On Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:04:53 -0700, sturlamolden wrote:

> On 2 Aug, 15:50, Jizzai <jiz... at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Is a _pure_ python program buffer overflow proof?
>>
>> For example in C++ you can declare a char[9] to hold user input. If the
>> user inputs 10+ chars a buffer overflow occurs.
> 
> Short answer: NO
> 
> Bounds checking on sequence types is a protection against buffer
> overflow, but is certainly not sufficient.
> 
> The Python interpreter is written in C. Python extension modules are
> written in C (or something similar). If you find an unprotected buffer
> in this C code, you can possibly overflow this buffer. 

How are C extension modules "_pure_ python"?




-- 
Steven



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