Data execution prevention (DEP) in Windows 10

Introduction

Does this sound familiar?

“Sorry, not on the list.” “Oh come on! I was just in there five minutes ago! I just need to go get my coat.” “Not on the list.” “Okay.” Five minutes later: “Still not on the list.” “Oh come on, I spent like twenty bucks on this hat!” “Not. On. The. List.” 

Data execution prevention (DEP) is like a bouncer for a very exclusive club. If you’re on the list, you can use that area as you like. You gain access to resources that you would not otherwise have and certain things are allowed to happen there that are protected from outside interference. But if too many people try to get in at once or if unauthorized people get in, it can potentially cause major problems.

Many operating systems have reserved memory areas that they run critical functions and programs in. This memory is limited, however, and if something isn’t written correctly or something nasty gets in there that starts taking up far too much space, you end up with a buffer overflow situation. That may not sound bad at first, but it can give access to potentially critical data to programs and users that should not have access to it. 

Fortunately, Windows 10 has protection for this area is enabled by default and must be disabled manually by the user if they wish to turn it off. We’ll be going over what makes DEP important, why it should be kept on if at all possible, and if necessary how to disable it.

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What is data execution prevention?

DEP, also known as executable space protection in more neutral terms, marks specific memory regions as non-executable. If something tries to execute code in those areas, it will throw (Read more...)