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Hardware DEP

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January 23rd, 2006

George Ou makes a very good post in his post on ZDNet on the whole hardware DEP issue. 

[tag]DEP[/tag] is the technology integrated into modern CPUs that helps prevent data being executed as code (a trick that a lot of malware tries to use) but the problem is that you need a DEP-enabled processor to take advantage of hardware-enabled DEP.

Ou has also compiled a list of [tag]CPU[/tag]s that have hardware-DEP (or XD) support but it's a shame that the list is an image.  For clarity I'm going to recreate the list here in text format for consumer CPUs:

[tag]Intel[/tag] CPUs

[tag]Pentium 4[/tag]:

  • 672
  • 670
  • 662
  • 660
  • 650
  • 640
  • 630
  • 571
  • 570J
  • 561
  • 560J
  • 551
  • 550J
  • 541
  • 540J
  • 531
  • 530J
  • 521
  • 520J
  • 506
  • 505J

[tag]Pentium M[/tag]

  • 780
  • 770
  • 760
  • 750
  • 740
  • 730
  • LV 778
  • LV 758
  • ULV 753
  • ULV 733J

[tag]Celeron M[/tag]

  • 380
  • 370
  • 360J
  • 350J
  • ULV 383
  • ULV 373

[tag]Celeron D[/tag]

  • 355
  • 351
  • 346
  • 345J
  • 341
  • 340J
  • 336
  • 335J
  • 331
  • 330J
  • 326
  • 325J

[tag]AMD[/tag] CPU

  • Socket 939
  • Socket 754 (not AMD64 based on Clawhammer-512)

If you have a hardware-enabled DEP CPU then use it, if not then you'll need to upgrade the CPU (and possibly the motherboard).  Fortunately this isn't as expensive a proposition that it used to be and you can buy cheap bundles that will not only boost the power of your PC but also give you added security.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23rd, 2006 at 19:24 and is filed under Kit!, Stay Secure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Hardware DEP”

  1. How to dramatically increase Windows XP SP2 security in 10 clicks! » The PC Doctor Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 12:01

    [...] Did you know that Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista contain a powerful feature that you can activate that will protect your PC against many of the vulnerabilities that plague Windows users?  This is called DEP - Data Execution Prevention and what DEP does is prevent data stored in memory from being run as code - a trick that some malware uses to try to execute nasty code on your PC. [...]

  2. Easily increase Windows XP SP2 Security dramatically « Jatex’s Weblog Says:
    August 2nd, 2008 at 21:53

    [...] way to increase your security dramatically is to use DEP. DEP - Data Execution Prevention and what DEP does is prevent data stored in memory from being run as [...]