Sigreturn oriented programming is a real threat

This paper shows that Sigreturn Oriented Programming (SROP), which consists of using calls to sigreturn to execute arbitrary code, is a powerful method for the development of exploits. This is demonstrated by developing two different kinds of SROP based exploits, one asterisk exploit which was already portrayed in the paper presenting SROP, and one novel exploit for a recently disclosed bug in the DNS address resolution of the default GNU C library. Taking advantage of the fact, that these exploits have very few dependencies on the program being exploited, a library is implemented to automate wide parts of SROP exploit creation. This highlights the potential of SROP in respect to reusable and portable exploit code which strongly supports the conclusion of the original paper: SROP is a real threat!