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Re: http://www.smashguard.org


From: Pavel Machek <pavel () ucw cz>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 01:29:21 +0200

Hi!

Computer World, January 15, 2004).

    

As Theo said, the AMD buffer overflow "protection" is nothing more than 
sensible separation of R and X bits per page, fixing a glaring and 
  


Actually it is not "sensible", and it is not separation.

You can have r--, r-x, but you can't have --x.


But that is *exactly* what is meant by "separation" of R and X.

I have no idea what you mean by it not being "sensible". Most every CPU 
I have ever seen does this except the x86. Someone apparently thought 
there was no value in separate R and X bits for the i386 back in the 
mid-80s. It was a false economy :)

Well.. they are not really separate bits.

If they was, you'd have ---, --x, r--, r-x. You can't have --x
combination (which is sad for the emulators).

I believe that on most sane architectures (m68k at least), you can
have all 4 combinations.

                                                        Pavel
-- 
934a471f20d6580d5aad759bf0d97ddc


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