I thought this would be interesting to share. I wasn't really sure where to post this. But since its a hardware feature, I'll stick it here. In mid-May, an Intel employee submitted a patch to the Linux Kernel to enable support for an unannounced security-related feature in their CPUs. Its called SMEP (Supervisor Mode Execution Protection). While I couldn't find any info on it from Intel, a security researcher (whitehat hacker) has blogged about it in detail... SMEP: What is It, and How to Beat It on Linux => http://vulnfactory.org/blog/2011/06/05/smep-what-is-it-and-how-to-beat-it-on-linux/ At this time, no Intel processor supports SMEP. Presumably, it will be a feature in Ivy Bridge for 2012. (We can also assume Windows 8 will support it. Maybe a patch or Service Pack feature for Windows Vista/7?)
