This assignment focuses on buffer overflow attacks and how they can be carried out on poorly$-$programmed system programs. You may not be able to complete this assignment on a modern operating system, as modern compilers build canaries into code in order to prevent such a thing from occurring. I would recommend using an older Linux distribution in a virtual machine for this assignment $($something prior to Linux kernel version $2\mathrm{.}4),$ but you are welcome to attempt this on a modern OS and see if you can get it to work. Review the article Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit for a very good, detailed introduction on how to perform a stack smashing attack.