Welcome!

Virtualization Authors: Jason Bloomberg, Pat Romanski, Dana Gardner, Liz McMillan, Maureen O'Gara

Related Topics: Red Hat, Open Source

Red Hat: Article

Red Hat Protects Supposedly Invincible Code against Malware

Red Hat Protects Supposedly Invincible Code against Malware
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
June 11, 2004 12:00 AM EDT
Reads:
 12,916
Linux, which according to modern myth is supposed to be virus-proof, is on its way to supporting the NX (No Execute) security widgetry that the x86 chipmakers are building into their processors.

As its name suggests, NX is meant to block worms and virus from executing their payloads and curtail the bevy of nasties that exploit vulnerable buffer overflows, a source of half the world's intrusion headaches these days.

To work, the widgetry needs operating system support. Microsoft's XP Service Pack 2 is supposed to support NX when it arrives later this year.

Based on initial code provided by Intel, Red Hat has thrown some prototype software into the collective Linux kernel pot and has put it into its Fedora Core 2 early developer code. It intends to put it in the Red Hat Enterprise 3 update later this year and the Enterprise 4 release next year.

The patch may inhibit some legacy software from working.

Published June 11, 2004 – Reads 12,916
Copyright © 2004 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

Comments (0)

Share your thoughts on this story.

Add your comment
You must be signed in to add a comment. Sign-in | Register

In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect.