MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-06-07 |
| FROM | From: "Inker, Evan"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] CPU-based security for Windows XP, Red Hat Linux coming
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CPU-based security for Windows XP, Red Hat Linux coming
The hardware security feature will get OS support later this year
News Story by Todd R. Weiss
JUNE 07, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 and the
next version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 will support new CPU-based
security protections designed to stop incoming malicious executable code
from being triggered.
The improved security feature has been included in 64-bit CPUs from Advanced
Micro Devices Inc. since last year, but operating system makers haven't yet
built support for the technology into their code, said Jeff Lowe, desktop
marketing manager at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD. That will change when
Windows XP SP2 is released later this year and when Red Hat's new enterprise
Linux OS ships in August.
AMD calls its version of the new technology Enhanced Virus Protection. It
was created by making changes to the silicon architecture in the processors
that alter how code is permitted to enter and exit system memory, Lowe said.
As a result, malicious code that acts in nonapproved ways can be stopped at
the gate.
"We think it's a great idea," he said. "You'll automatically get a level of
security with it, then when you add security software you'll make it as hard
as possible for hackers to get your company's data and your data. It's as
many speed bumps as you can put in" to prevent attacks.
Red Hat is now working on the new NX -- or "no execute" -- technology in
prototype form for use with x86 processors from Intel Corp. and with Intel's
64-bit extension technology, said Tim Burke, director of server development
at Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat. NX prevents an operating system from
executing malicious code at the CPU and memory levels so it can't infect a
computer or system.
The NX technology is already present on Intel Itanium CPUs and is now in the
prototype stages for x86 CPUs, he said.
Red Hat is also working on a related security feature called Execshield,
which is designed to help separate the program stack from its instruction
area to prevent executables from erroneously being run in the event of an
overflow, Burke said. Execshield also randomizes the memory address of a
program stack to make it harder for malicious code to know where to gain
entry into the program.
"This makes it almost impossible to figure where to put the malicious
instructions," he said.
Dan Snyder, a spokesman for Intel, said its Execute Disabled Bit security
technology is already included in the company's Itanium CPUs. Support for
the technology will also be built into Pentium 4 chips by the third quarter
of this year, he said.
"It's not the be all and end all," Snyder said, but it should help prevent
buffer underrun and other malicious attacks. "This basically prevents that
by locking the operating system into not allowing it" to occur, he said.
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