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Application & OT Security · Advanced

Shadow Stack

A hardware- or software-protected copy of return addresses used to detect tampering with the regular call stack.

Definition

Intel CET and ARM's Guarded Control Stack store return addresses in protected memory and fault if a return address does not match. This defeats ROP and stack-based return-address overwrites.

Example

Windows Hardware-enforced Stack Protection uses Intel CET shadow stacks.

Exam tip

Backward-edge CFI; pairs with forward-edge CFI.

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