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312-50V13 · Question #147

You are programming a buffer overflow exploit and you want to create a NOP sled of 200 bytes in the program exploit.c What is the hexadecimal value of NOP instruction?

The correct answer is D. 0x90. The hexadecimal value for the No-Operation (NOP) instruction in x86 architecture, frequently used to create NOP sleds in buffer overflow exploits, is 0x90.

Submitted by thandi_sa· Mar 6, 2026System Hacking

Question

You are programming a buffer overflow exploit and you want to create a NOP sled of 200 bytes in the program exploit.c What is the hexadecimal value of NOP instruction?

Options

  • A0x60
  • B0x80
  • C0x70
  • D0x90

How the community answered

(19 responses)
  • A
    5% (1)
  • C
    5% (1)
  • D
    89% (17)

Why each option

The hexadecimal value for the No-Operation (NOP) instruction in x86 architecture, frequently used to create NOP sleds in buffer overflow exploits, is 0x90.

A0x60

`0x60` is the opcode for PUSHAD (Push All General-Purpose Registers) in x86, not NOP.

B0x80

`0x80` is a common prefix for many two-byte instructions (e.g., immediate byte following), not the NOP instruction itself.

C0x70

`0x70` is the opcode for JNO (Jump if No Overflow), a conditional jump instruction, not NOP.

D0x90Correct

In the x86 instruction set, `0x90` is the single-byte opcode for the NOP (No-Operation) instruction. A NOP sled consists of a sequence of these instructions, providing a range of memory addresses where execution can land and slide down to the actual shellcode, making buffer overflow exploitation more reliable.

Concept tested: x86 NOP instruction hexadecimal value in buffer overflows

Source: https://www.felixcloutier.com/x86/nop

Topics

#buffer overflow#NOP sled#exploit development

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