Visualization of memory protection in OS. Learn address binding, virtual memory security, buffer overflow protection, and memory isolation with animations.
Memory protection is a method of controlling memory access rights on a computer system to prevent unauthorized access to memory locations. It is a crucial feature of modern operating systems that ensures the security and stability of the system by preventing processes from accessing memory that does not belong to them.
Memory protection mechanisms work by associating access control attributes with each memory location. These attributes determine which processes or users can read, write, or execute code at that location. When a process attempts to access memory, the system checks these attributes to ensure the access is permitted.
Interactive simulation of memory protection mechanisms
Key mechanisms and techniques used in memory protection
Address binding is the process of mapping logical addresses used by a program to physical addresses in memory. There are three types: compile-time binding, load-time binding, and execution-time binding.
Paging is a memory management scheme that eliminates external fragmentation and allows the physical address space of a process to be non-contiguous. Each page has protection attributes.
Segmentation is a memory management technique that supports the user's view of memory. Each segment has a name and length, and can have different protection attributes.
Memory protection keys provide a mechanism for protecting memory regions with keys that can be enabled or disabled. This allows for efficient switching between different protection contexts.
Buffer overflow protection techniques prevent malicious code from being executed by overflowing buffers. Techniques include stack canaries, ASLR, and DEP.
Access control lists define which processes or users can access specific memory regions. They provide fine-grained control over memory access permissions.