Features

Processor security isn't something that immediately springs to mind when locking down your PC. The Gibson Research Corporation has given it plenty of thought, though, and has come up with a tool called SecurAble (www.grc.com/securable.htm).

Why is processor security important? Steve Gibson says that even though Microsoft introduced support for Hardware Data Execution Prevention (DEP) into the 32-bit versions of Windows XP SP2, Windows 2003 Server SP1 and Windows Vista, "it's disabled

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for all or most of the system's software by default and it does no-one any good unless it's turned on".

When hardware DEP is switched on, memory regions not explicitly containing executable code can be marked as non-executable, thus protecting the system heaps, stacks, data and communications buffers from running that code inadvertently. "So-called 'buffer overrun' attacks are the predominant way internet-connected computers have historically been remotely hacked and compromised," claims Gibson.

SecurAble quickly and painlessly probes your processor to determine the presence and operational status of 64-bit instruction extensions, hardware support for detecting and preventing the execution of code in program data areas and hardware support for system resource virtualisation, allowing you to see at a glance if these handy features are running on your PC.

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