SSCP: Systems Security Certified Practitioner

By ISC · Question Mode

QuestionQ204

VerifiedNetwork and Communications Security

While running a packet sniffer on a network, you observe a packet containing a long sequence of 0x90 0x90 0x90 0x90.... in its middle that is traveling to an x86-based target machine. What attempted activity could this indicate?

Explanation

On x86 systems, 0x90 is the no-operation (NOP) instruction. Long runs of NOPs form a NOP sled, a common component of buffer-overflow exploit payloads that increases the likelihood that redirected execution reaches injected code.

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