On Mon, 8 Jan 2001, Michael Shmulevich wrote:
> > When a new user process is started will its user space be cleared by the
> > kernel or is there a potential leak from an older user process ?
>
> Usually it is defied by the loader. If the data section contents is set to
> LOAD, then the contents of the section will be loaded from disk (no leak),
> if not -- whatever values left i nmemory will be there, or exactly, the
> virtual page of some other proccess that was swapped out or ended.
What!??? I'm assume you are writing about executing a new program and
not forking a new process here. In the latter case no memory is changed.
When you exec a new program, any allocated memory is cleared by the kernel
before returning to the user space. It would be a huge security hole
otherwise.
--
+ Maciej W. Rozycki, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland +
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+ e-mail: macro@ds2.pg.gda.pl, PGP key available +
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