Technologies for mitigating call-oriented programming using an inter-module control flow policy

A method for control flow validation, the method comprising:

• generating, by a processor trace logic of a processor of a computing device, trace data indicative of control flow of a protected application of the computing device;
• identifying, by the computing device, an indirect branch target based on the trace data;
• determining, by the computing device, whether the indirect branch target is included in a first module of the protected application, wherein a previous indirect branch target is included in the first module of the protected application;
• determining, by the computing device, whether an inter-module transfer policy is satisfied in response to determining that the indirect branch target is not included in the first module;
• storing, by the computing device, the indirect branch target as the previous indirect branch target in response to determining that the inter-module transfer policy is satisfied;
• and
• generating, by the computing device, an exception in response to determining that the inter-module transfer policy is not satisfied.

One or more computer-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, in response to being executed, cause a computing device to:

• generate, by a processor trace logic of a processor of the computing device, trace data indicative of control flow of a protected application of the computing device;
• identify an indirect branch target based on the trace data;
• determine whether the indirect branch target is included in a first module of the protected application, wherein a previous indirect branch target is included in the first module of the protected application;
• determine whether an inter-module transfer policy is satisfied in response to determining that the indirect branch target is not included in the first module;
• store the indirect branch target as the previous indirect branch target in response to determining that the inter-module transfer policy is satisfied;
• and
• generate an exception in response to determining that the inter-module transfer policy is not satisfied.