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[Discuss] [OT] Google Found Disastrous Symantec and Norton Vulnerabilities That Are 'As Bad As It Gets'



On 6/29/2016 3:31 PM, Mike Small wrote:
> "Symantec runs their unpackers in the Kernel!"

Yup.

> To quote one of Hillary Clinton's emails: "WHAT??? Or, more to the
> point, WTF??"

Performance. Doing everything in the kernel means that their code does
not need to keep waiting for the CPU to switch between ring 0 for
reading and ring 3 for unpacking/parsing.

Why is this "necessary"? Because all of the consumer-focused "technical"
review sites heavily weight performance in their ratings.

-- 
Rich P.



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