Security-conscious processors
AMD and Intel prep technology to prevent buffer overflows
at the hardware level.
IT news site Silicon.com has published an article about hardware security in CPUs to prevent buffer overflows.
The article reports that AMD Athalon 64 chips already contain the necessary circuitry,
which won't be activated until Microsoft releases Service Pack 2 for
Windows XP - around April or May 2004. According to
AMD's Director of Marketing, this should also
provide enough time for AMD to think up a catchy marketing term.
The article reports that Intel will also be putting similar technology into
Prescott, the next generation of Pentium 4 chips, expected next month.
How much will this do to prevent the spread of viruses? That depends.
Relatively few prolific viruses use buffer overflows to exploit
systems - notable recent exceptions being SQL/Slammer and W32/Blaster.
Nevertheless, buffer overflows remain a threat, and neither of these viruses was inconsequential - both caused widespread
damage. Of course, any technology that saves users from
themselves by tightening security on their machines is welcome.
12 January 2004
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