Javascript JIT in web browsers

[Matt McCutchen]

On Sun, 2010-08-15 at 22:41 +0200, drago01 wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 9:45 PM, Matt McCutchen <matt at mattmccutchen.net> wrote:
> > On Sun, 2010-08-15 at 18:26 +0200, Kevin Kofler wrote:
> >> But the end effect is, we're allowing a web browser to disable memory
> >> protection, exposing all users to a severe security risk from merely
> >> browsing web sites. IMHO, the performance improvements in JavaScript aren't
> >> worth that risk.

> > An alternative is to run the JavaScript in a less-privileged process,
> > like I believe Chromium does.
> 
> The "problem" is fixable there is a patch that is being discussed
> upstream to fix the issue and allow selinux memory protection it is
> just not merged yet.

I'm not holding my breath.

The patch would avoid one particularly risky behavior, but the browser
still has a very large attack surface.  OS-level sandboxing is a good
idea in any case.

-- 
Matt