how to overcome buffer overflow attacks?

Question

I read about the buffer overflow attack and wanted to know if changing the processor so it refuses to execute instruction that are not located in the code area can solve it? thanks

Answer 1

This is typically done by setting the no-execute bit on a memory page or segment (the stack, for example), in modern CPUs. It helps against some stack-based overflows, but isn't a 100% fool-proof cure.

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_execute