Weitek under unix (was Re: SECURITY BUG)

[James Van Artsdalen]

In <1991Feb13.050417.10170 at rfengr.com>, rfarris at rfengr.com (Rick Farris) wrote:

> In article <54428 at bigtex.cactus.org> I (James Van Artsdalen) wrote:

| The Abacus (Weitek is the company name) does not use memory for
| registers, but instead uses memory for the instruction set.

> So James, I'm having trouble reading through the obfuscation -- I
> really don't see what the facts above have to do with the subject of
> whether or not Dell Unix has the bug.

The Subject: was "Re: Weitek under unix (was Re: SECURITY BUG)".  The
contents corrected misimpressions on how the Weitek worked.  The
Weitek does not need the u block to be writable, and there is no
reason for 387 support (real or emulated) to need the u block to be
writable.

> Here, here's a simple yes or no question: "Does Dell Unix allow user
> processes to overwrite the u block?"

It does not allow it on my 486.  I have no 386 to try it on.
-- 
James R. Van Artsdalen          james at bigtex.cactus.org   "Live Free or Die"
Dell Computer Co    9505 Arboretum Blvd Austin TX 78759         512-338-8789