ELF object files: executable stack and security risk?

[Walter Bright]

On 7/26/2011 7:06 PM, bearophile wrote:
> Walter:
>
>> Hmm. D is supposed to link with gcc code, so that could be an issue.
>
> How?

I believe Marco explained that: "GNU C closures need an executable stack"


> Is the D GC eventually in need for some hardening? This is highly technical stuff:

It's not that technical.


> http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2009/08/04/preventing-the-exploitation-of-user-mode-heap-corruption-vulnerabilities.aspx

D relies more on memory safety guarantees of the language rather than 
after-the-fact damage control. A well written D program will have very little 
unsafe code in it, whereas it's pretty much impossible to do that in C or C++, 
as they rely so heavily on pointer arithmetic.