I read awhile back that Leopard takes advantage of the XD bit on Intel processors (I have core 2 duo macbook) for security, but then I saw some commentary about how Snow Leopard was going to *actually* use the XD bit. Anyone know the story? Did Leopard fail to really use it? And is it (like w/ windows boxes) something I have to go into the BIOS to enable? I can't figure out how to get into my Macbook bios to turn it on, nor can I see in Leopard if it's enabled.
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XD bit and leopard?
- Thread starter Schtibbie
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Both stories are correct. Leopard and Snow Leopard both use XD, but Snow Leopard applies it to more applications and processes than Leopard does.
So that implies of course that my Macbook actually has that activated in the hardware? If I were to install Vista on bootcamp, would it be able to use DEP (microsoft's data execution prevention, which is grayed-out as an option unless you have gone into your BIOS and turned on the XD bit on your hardware)? Just curious. It's easy for me to see that my work computer has this active but of course Leopard doesn't have an screen that shows this active or not.