Execute binary code

[Jorgen Grahn]

On 9 Jan 2007 07:04:11 -0800, sturlamolden <sturlamolden at yahoo.no> wrote:
>
> Jorgen Grahn wrote:
>
>> For what it's worth[1], under Unix it /is/ impossible. The only way to bring in
>> new code (short of dynamic libraries) is to call exec(2) or its variations,
>> and all need a file system object to load the code from.
>
> The x86 processor cannot tell the difference between code segments and
> data segments. If the executable code is stored in string, all you need
> is a pointer to the string holding the code. You can cast the string
> address to a function pointer (possibly through a void* if the compiler
> complains), then dereference (call) the function pointer.
>
> Trojans, viruses and JIT compilers do this all the time. Here is an
> (untested) example:
[...]

You probably need to flush the code cache somewhere there, too, don't you?
Or will that resolve itself because that memory area hasn't been executed
before?

I must admit I haven't contemplated this since the MC68000 was state of the
art, before caches became popular.

/Jorgen

-- 
  // Jorgen Grahn <grahn@        Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/     snipabacken.dyndns.org>  R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!