Meanings
nounstack smashing (uncountable)
- uncountablecomputer securityThe exploitation of a buffer overflow affecting the stack.
A stack smashing attack fills up the stack area and modifies the return address to an attacker's desired location.
2008 December 17, Asoke K. Talukder, Manish Chaitanya, Architecting Secure Software Systems, CRC Press, →ISBN, page 130
Origin
Popularized by an early description of the technique titled Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit (1996).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
stack smashing. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stack%20smashing
MLA
“stack smashing.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stack%20smashing. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stack smashing,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stack%20smashing.
Source: stack smashing on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.