Re: Secure Linux kernel package?

[Raul Miller <rdm@test.legislate.com>]

On Thu, 12 Nov 1998, Raul Miller wrote:
>  : The only security provided by this patch derives from the fact that it's
>  : not commonly deployed.  If it were put in the standard kernel it would
>  : lose all value.

Nathan E Norman <finn@midco.net> wrote:
> Oh, I see ... well, actually I don't (as you list zero reasons why this
> would be the case).  Care to elaborate?

I'm refering specifically to the nonexecutable stack patch.

The stack still contains pointers into executable code.  Some of that
code [libc] is very rich in capability, and tends to exist at well-known
addresses.  

If your code does a stack overflow it's still quite possible to break
security by carefully choosing the offset into libc.  Right now that's
not such a big deal, because it's relevant to so few systems.

-- 
Raul