Patents by Inventor Shawn Daniel Hoffman

Shawn Daniel Hoffman has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Return flow guard using control stack identified by processor register
    Patent number: 10157268
    Abstract: Each program thread running on a computing device has an associated data stack and control stack. A stack displacement value is generated, which is the difference between the memory address of the base of the data stack and the memory address of the base of the control stack, and is stored in a register of a processor of the computing device that is restricted to operating system kernel use. For each thread on which return flow guard is enabled, prologue and epilogue code is added to each function of the thread (e.g., by a memory manager of the computing device). The data stack and the control stack each store a return address for the function, and when the function completes the epilogue code allows the function to return only if the return addresses on the data stack and the control stack match.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2018
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Jordan Thomas Rabet, Kenneth D. Johnson, Matthew R. Miller, Adam M. Zabrocki, Shawn Daniel Hoffman, Landy Wang, Yevgeniy M. Bak
  • Return Flow Guard Using Control Stack Identified By Processor Register
    Publication number: 20180088988
    Abstract: Each program thread running on a computing device has an associated data stack and control stack. A stack displacement value is generated, which is the difference between the memory address of the base of the data stack and the memory address of the base of the control stack, and is stored in a register of a processor of the computing device that is restricted to operating system kernel use. For each thread on which return flow guard is enabled, prologue and epilogue code is added to each function of the thread (e.g., by a memory manager of the computing device). The data stack and the control stack each store a return address for the function, and when the function completes the epilogue code allows the function to return only if the return addresses on the data stack and the control stack match.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2016
    Publication date: March 29, 2018
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Jordan Thomas Rabet, Kenneth D. Johnson, Matthew R. Miller, Adam M. Zabrocki, Shawn Daniel Hoffman, Landy Wang, Yevgeniy M. Bak