SELECTIVE RUNTIME ACTIVATION OF ANTI-ROP DEFENSE

A method, an apparatus and a computer program product for detecting and protecting against just-in-time Return-Oriented Programming (ROP) attacks on computer code by selective runtime activation of anti-ROP defenses. The method comprises executing a dynamic agent while the computer code is being executed that monitors for exploitation of memory exposure vulnerabilities and flow hijack vulnerabilities within the computer code. The dynamic agent identifies, during execution of the computer code, an exposed portion of the computer code that was exposed by the exploitation of the one or more memory exposure vulnerabilities. In o response to the identification of the exposed portion of the computer code, the dynamic agent performs an anti-ROP defense on the exposed portion.