Doing the Impossible: Finding Mainframe Buffer Overflows in z/OS
Jake Labelle demystifies IBM z/OS mainframe security, demonstrating how to find and exploit memory corruption buffer overflows in legacy enterprise mainframes.
Summary
The Critical and Overlooked World of Enterprise Mainframes
Mainframes process over 70% of global financial transactions and airline reservations, yet security auditing of IBM z/OS systems remains a rare and misunderstood discipline.
Understanding z/Architecture and High-Level Assembler (HLASM)
Jake Labelle breaks down mainframe memory layouts, 31-bit/64-bit addressing, Base-Displacement memory management, and HLASM calling conventions.
Discovering and Exploiting Mainframe Buffer Overflows
Labelle demonstrates finding memory corruption bugs in authorized system programs (APF-authorized libraries) and constructing custom payloads to seize Supervisor State.
Defensive Hardening for Mainframe Environments
The presentation provides enterprise security teams with auditing checklists, system integrity verification practices, and logging configurations for z/OS systems.
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