Executable Space Protection - OS Implementations

OS Implementations

Many operating systems implement or have an available executable space protection policy. Here is a list of such systems in alphabetical order, each with technologies ordered from newest to oldest.

For some technologies, there is a summary which gives the major features each technology supports. The summary is structured as below.

• Hardware Supported Processors: (Comma separated list of CPU architectures)
• Emulation: (No) or (Architecture Independent) or (Comma separated list of CPU architectures)
• Other Supported: (None) or (Comma separated list of CPU architectures)
• Standard Distribution: (No) or (Yes) or (Comma separated list of distributions or versions which support the technology)
• Release Date: (Date of first release)

A technology supplying Architecture Independent emulation will be functional on all processors which aren't hardware supported. The "Other Supported" line is for processors which allow some grey-area method, where an explicit NX bit doesn't exist yet hardware allows one to be emulated in some way.