Re: Thesis shapj@us.ibm.com
Tue, 27 Apr 1999 10:53:00 -0400

> An issue I didn't see raised, probably because it is not
> relevant to the design as given, is "execute only" access...

There isn't really a difference between execute only and read only from a security perspective -- both constitute reads by the CPU. Preventing a user from examining your code can be done by interposing a process boundary, though execute only probably does have advantages in reducing certain classes of programming errors.

The real reason, however, is rather more prosaic: most hardware no longer supports execute-only permissions. Most OS's no longer support it actively.

Jonathan S. Shapiro
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Email: shapj@us.ibm.com
Phone: +1 914 784 7085 (Tieline: 863)
Fax: +1 914 784 7595