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AMD Could Profit from Buffer-Overflow Protection
spin2cool writes "New Scientist has an article about how AMD and Intel are planning on releasing new consumer chips with built-in buffer-overflow protection. Apparently AMD's chips will make it to market first, though, which some analysts think could give AMD an advantage as the next round of chips are released. The question will be whether their PR department can spin this into a big enough story to sell to the Average Joe."
Especially if the buffer is their banking account.
Put me down for one! This is exactly what we all need. Why didn't they think of this in the first place. Always on Microsofts shoulders to button the buffers up. This will make a huge difference in security.
"For some reason, people love that little Intel jingle"
but people HATE the blue man group...
Sure, AMD just has to write a buffer-overflow exploit into a worm that carries the pop-up window message, "If you had and AMD processor, you're hard drive wouldn't be erasing right now."
....
:PANIC
MOV AX,DS:OSID[BX]
CMP AX,2 ; 2=Windows 3.x
JE PANIC
CMP AX,3 ; 3=Windows 9x
JE PANIC
CMP AX,4 ; 4=Windows 2K/ME/XP
JE PANIC
CMP AX,10 ; 10=Minix
JE OKAY
CMP AX,11 ; 11=...
ISSUE 'CPU BUFFER OVERFLOW ACTIVATED'
JMP PANIC
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Although this is great for AMD I'm sure, I stopped reading the article when Enderle was the first 'analyst' quoted.
We don't support that... is the solution ;-)
Separation of programs into separate code and data segment -- what a novel idea! I hope they got a patent on this technology!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Now those stickers on the front of the computer really mean something...
What are you talking about? Linux has never suffered a buffer overflow.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
If you designed and produced cars on a typical programmer's development schedule, you would probably have to pour oil into them while running to keep the fluid levels right.
And they would just explode for no reason sometimes.
Excellent! Now they just need to develop a chip that protects against id10t and PEBCAK problems.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
I always thought "Intel Inside" was a warning label.
Unless you use a .NET Hammer (R). It must be used through this ingenious slotted track (58lbs for simple nails, 378lb for server nails) that has sensors that can determine if what is to be hit is a nail or someone's head. The only draw back is that it only works with nails made by Microsoft, it consumes 1G Watts, and only hits 10 nails/hour (unless you buy the unlimited nail version which can do 100 nails/hour depending on weather conditions). By the way, those patent free hammers out there are only used by the fringe, leftist trouble makers.
That's ok, I install cracks on all of my copy-protected software anyway. In the case of games it's to remove the CD check. In this case, you might have to use a crack just to stop the program from crashing :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"Intel Inside? Then so are the hackers"
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Shouldn't this be MPU +.99038238 Funny?
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
What 'ring' does goatse.cx run in?
I always thought "Intel Inside" was a warning label. And I always think "Designed for Microsoft Windows" is a warning of incompatibility.
Right. Which is why it's continually packed every single performance for nearly 6 years straight (in boston).
Right...
The alert was sparked by the discovery that a raft of Microsoft programs were vulnerable to a problem called "buffer overflow", which hackers can exploit to extract private information from a PC.
...
The new AMD chips prevent this. They separate memory into instruction-only and data-only sections. If hackers attempt to execute code from the data section of memory, they will fail. Windows will then detect the attempt and close the application.
So they are depending on Windows to detect the attempt and close the application? Bwahahaha! So now rather than offering Critical Updates to fix buffer overflow vulnerabilities, MS will now offer Critical Updates to fix buffer overflow exception handling vulnerabilities. Ha!
Actually this is fantastic news. Already, it doesn't matter that Microsofties are dividing by zero all over the place - it becomes an exception taken care of by the built-in structured exception handling and life goes on and the user is never the wiser.
Now we can excerpt even more crappy code. All that's left is a realtime automaton connected to the CPU that spots Microsoft code on the way and automatically gives it a liposuction before feeding it in.
Technology!
They need to hire the marketing firm that produced those hilarious 3dfx commercials...
;-)
/proud to be an AMD customer since the K6II
You know, the ones that started off with the soft voice, "We produced a chip that has the power to save lives, to heal across distances, to end hunger...But then we deciced: Hey, let's use it for games!"
Granted you could be nervous about this since 3dfx went the way of the dodo, but since AMD doesn't make POS video cards that double the weight of your box...they should be safe
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume