Subject: Re: HEADS UP: migration to fully dynamic linked "base" system
To: NetBSD-current Discussion List <current-users@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Greg A. Woods <woods@weird.com>
List: current-users
Date: 08/26/2002 19:35:15
[ On , August 26, 2002 at 17:45:02 (-0400), Nathan J. Williams wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: HEADS UP: migration to fully dynamic linked "base" system
>
> woods@weird.com (Greg A. Woods) writes:
> 
> > I also know that I don't want it to ever be possible on at least some of
> > my systems (and perhaps even all of them) for a static linked program to
> > dynamically link new code into itself.
> 
> You realize that on various architectures, including our most popular
> (x86), any program can do this by just reading new code into memory,
> since all readable memory is automatically executable? Your constraint
> is therefore impossible on those architectures.

Yeah, well that's one of the reasons why I try to avoid using such hardware.

(not that the alternatives I have available are as yet necessarily much better)

(the bigger issue is with an executable stack I think, but wasn't
something done very recently to help move us towards eliminating that
"feature" where possible?)

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;            <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;           <woods@robohack.ca>
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