Bell Labs or Microsoft security?

Richard A Steenbergen ras at e-gerbil.net
Wed Jan 29 17:36:22 UTC 2003


On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 05:26:06PM +0000, E.B. Dreger wrote:
> 
> If you check before each byte.  Checking for sufficient space
> first ("is there room for a 245-byte string?") is much faster.
> Besides, looking at all the bloated code using indirect function
> calls[*] and crappy code using poor algorithms... is speed really
> a concern?
> 
> [*] Try profiling indirect function calls on x86, especially
>     newer cores.  Such instructions carry a stiff penalty... but
>     there's no shortage of virtual functions in certain software.
>     (Think: OWL and MFC libraries.)

Note I'm making a distinction between fixing the string libraries to 
handle overflow situations better, and changing the entire OS to do array 
bounds checking. One is good, the other is not.

-- 
Richard A Steenbergen <ras at e-gerbil.net>       http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras
GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)



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