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Given that my hobby used to be exploiting various overflow exploits in Linux machines I agree with you, but do you think there are some things that Windows lagg

Given that my hobby used to be exploiting various overflow exploits in Linux machines I agree with you, but do you think there are some things that Windows lagged on that hurt it? For example, there are a couple things like ASLR, NX/W^X bit, and stack canaries that I think they should have rolled out sooner. Do you think that made a difference or were SQL injection et al so easy by then that there was no point in bothering with overflow attacks if your goal was to make money and get information? Edit: Ah, and I forgot: Windows ACE's are pretty much as good as NFSv4 ACLs but Linux still doesn't support anything other than basic POSIX.1e ACLs out of the box.

tptacek 16y ago
My perception is that at WinXPSP2, where Microsoft finally got serious about runtime protection, the state of the art in mainstream Unix deployments was not that much better. How resilient was Solaris to overflows in 2003?
- Locke1689 16y ago
  I think you're right; most UNIX installations weren't that much better (Linux especially). I think Solaris may have been one of the best simply because they were running on SPARC procs and the SPARCs have had optional NX support since '98 or so. That still relied on the admin enabling it though (so basically no one had it enabled).
  - yuhong 16y ago
    AFRIK, NX support was added to 32-bit Linux and Windows XP SP2 around the same time. Unfortunately, it required PAE. XP's bootloader could autodetect and automatically load the PAE kernel, Linux's bootloaders couldn't and so most people still ran with the non-PAE kernel and were thus not taking advantage of NX. This was made worse by the fact that Intel's early Pentium M processors did not have PAE. Finally years later some Linux distributions added auto-detection to their installer.
    - Locke1689 16y ago
      Actually, the first NX-related supported was available for Linux as PAGEEXEC on the PaX patch in 2000. You're right that that was nonstandard, though.

tptacek 16y ago

My perception is that at WinXPSP2, where Microsoft finally got serious about runtime protection, the state of the art in mainstream Unix deployments was not that much better. How resilient was Solaris to overflows in 2003?

Locke1689 16y ago
I think you're right; most UNIX installations weren't that much better (Linux especially). I think Solaris may have been one of the best simply because they were running on SPARC procs and the SPARCs have had optional NX support since '98 or so. That still relied on the admin enabling it though (so basically no one had it enabled).
- yuhong 16y ago
  AFRIK, NX support was added to 32-bit Linux and Windows XP SP2 around the same time. Unfortunately, it required PAE. XP's bootloader could autodetect and automatically load the PAE kernel, Linux's bootloaders couldn't and so most people still ran with the non-PAE kernel and were thus not taking advantage of NX. This was made worse by the fact that Intel's early Pentium M processors did not have PAE. Finally years later some Linux distributions added auto-detection to their installer.
  - Locke1689 16y ago
    Actually, the first NX-related supported was available for Linux as PAGEEXEC on the PaX patch in 2000. You're right that that was nonstandard, though.