prototype pollution

Prototype pollution is a vulnerability that can occur in JavaScript applications. It involves modifying the prototype of an object to add or overwrite properties and methods. This can lead to unexpected behavior and security issues, such as allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary code or access sensitive information.

In C, prototype pollution is not a direct concern because C is a statically-typed language that does not have the concept of prototypes like JavaScript does. However, C programs can still be vulnerable to other types of attacks, such as buffer overflows, format string vulnerabilities, and integer overflows.

To protect C programs from vulnerabilities, it is important to follow secure coding practices, such as:

  1. Input validation: Always validate and sanitize user input to prevent buffer overflows and other types of injection attacks.
  2. Bounds checking: Ensure that array bounds are checked to prevent buffer overflows.
  3. Use secure library functions: Instead of using unsafe functions like strcpy and printf, use their secure counterparts like strncpy and snprintf that allow specifying the maximum size of the destination buffer.
  4. Memory management: Properly allocate and deallocate memory to prevent memory leaks and use-after-free vulnerabilities.
  5. Use compiler flags: Enable compiler flags like -Wall and -Werror to enable warnings and treat them as errors. This helps catch potential issues during compilation.

By following these practices, you can reduce the risk of vulnerabilities in your C programs. It is also important to stay updated with security advisories and patches for any libraries or frameworks you use, as they may have their own vulnerabilities that need to be addressed.