Given extensive protections in modern operating systems that make buffer overflow exploits unfeasible, should I even bother studying these?
I’ve been diving into the world of buffer overflow vulnerabilities and their exploitation, which has been both challenging and fascinating. However, I’ve recently hit a mental roadblock and would love to get your insights.
With modern operating systems like Windows 11, numerous protections (e.g., ASLR, DEP, Control Flow Guard) make exploiting buffer overflows seemingly impossible under normal conditions. From what I’ve seen, successful exploitation often requires explicitly disabling these protections.
This raises a question:
If exploitation only becomes feasible when protections are deliberately disabled, doesn’t this shift the issue from being a vulnerability to a misconfiguration problem? In such scenarios, how relevant is studying buffer overflow attacks today, especially when modern systems seem almost invulnerable unless improperly configured?
I understand that the concepts are foundational to cybersecurity and have broader applications (e.g., understanding exploit chains or legacy systems), but I can’t shake the feeling that this area is becoming less practical in modern environments.
So, is it worth continuing to invest time in studying and practicing these techniques?
