Defending Buffer Overflows in WebAssembly: A Transpiler Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a transpiler that enhances WebAssembly binaries with security features like stack canaries and ASLR to prevent buffer overflows, addressing vulnerabilities from source languages.

Contribution

A novel transpiler approach that automatically adds buffer overflow protections to WebAssembly binaries, improving runtime security.

Findings

Transpiler successfully inserts stack canaries and ASLR into WebAssembly binaries.

Enhanced binaries demonstrate increased resistance to buffer overflow exploits.

Method provides a practical security enhancement for WebAssembly applications.

Abstract

WebAssembly is quickly becoming a popular compilation target for a variety of code. However, vulnerabilities in the source languages translate to vulnerabilities in the WebAssembly binaries. This work proposes a methodology and a WebAssembly transpiler to prevent buffer overflows in the unmanaged memory of the WebAssembly runtime. The transpiler accepts a WebAssembly binary and adds stack canaries and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) to protect against buffer overflows.