From: Regina George <lists@...>
Date: 2012-11-07T12:06:05+09:00
Subject: Type confusion: Java vs. Ruby

Preface: this is my first day using Ruby

Today in my computer security class, we talked about Java type confusion
attacks (if you're unfamiliar, there is a really great article here:
http://www.securingjava.com/chapter-five/chapter-five-7.html).
Basically, when Java references an object, it's actually using a pointer
to the object in memory, and the pointer has a tag referencing the type
of object it refers to. This type confusion attack is when two pointers
are created to the same object with incompatible types, which confuses
the Java system.

Now, like I said, this is my first day in Ruby. I've seen it in scripts,
but very briefly. However, I'm pretty sure that variables in Ruby don't
have types, but I do know that Ruby uses a dynamic type system for
objects. As far as the language goes, that's really all I know. I
definitely see some similarities between Ruby and Java, but not enough
to create a stance on this topic.

Our challenge was to find out if type confusion was possible in other
languages, and my group got assigned Ruby. Can anyone offer some insight
or point to some resources?

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