Maddin, Mittwoch, 19. September 2007, 15:31 Why I do not like taint tracking While I was giving a talk yesterday on our dynamic and language based approaches concerning the avoidance of code injection vulnerabilities at Laboratory for Dependable Distributed System at the University of Mannheim, I came up with a nice description, why I dislike dynamic taint tracking:
Preventing code injection exploits using dynamic taint tracking is like letting a thief in your house and checking his bag for stolen goods at the very moment he tries to leave. It might work, but only if you never lose track of the gangster and if you really know your house. However, I would prefer a solution that does not let thieves in my house in the first place.
(Nonetheless, I think taint tracking obviously has a valid place in the defender's arsenal)