Which technology provides memory address randomization to prevent buffer overflow exploits?

• A. Local Drive Encryption
• B. NX Bit
• C. Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)
• D. Secure Enclave

Answer: (C)

Memory address randomization makes the locations of key parts of a program unpredictable at runtime. Address Space Layout Randomization does exactly this by randomly arranging the base addresses of the executable, stack, heap, and loaded libraries each time a program runs. Because those addresses aren’t predictable, many buffer overflow exploits that rely on jumping to or referencing a fixed location become far less reliable, significantly increasing the difficulty of successfully executing injected code. ASLR is often used alongside other protections like DEP/NX to provide stronger defense against such attacks.

Local Drive Encryption protects data at rest on disk, not memory layout. The NX Bit marks memory pages as non-executable to prevent code execution from data regions, but it doesn’t randomize where things are located in memory. Secure Enclave provides a secure execution environment and key storage, not memory layout randomization for the main system.