Patent ID: 7856538

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of detecting a potential buffer overflow condition in a virtual address-space having legitimate writable memory segments and illegitimate writable memory segments, wherein the legitimate writable memory segments include data memory, non-bookkeeping portions of heap memory, and non-bookkeeping portions of stack memory, the method comprising: a. receiving a destination address for a computer process desired write operation; b. determining that said destination address is within an illegitimate writable memory segment within the process' virtual address space by comparing a pointer of the destination address to bounding addresses of at least one of plural primary memory segments in the virtual address-space, and when the pointer is determined to be within the at least one primary memory segment, walking the at least one primary memory segment to identify a secondary memory segment within the primary memory segment to which the pointer is directed; and c. informing the process of an identity of the illegitimate writable memory segment.