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[Larry at larryseltzer.com (Larry Seltzer)]

>>That's where you are wrong larry, if you have an NX capable CPU
("hardware enforced") DEP is turned on by default on all and every
process. Software DEP is not really DEP it's more like SafeSEH... 

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/875352 ("A detailed
description of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in Windows XP
Service Pack 2...")

"OptIn - This setting is the default configuration. On systems with
processors that can implement hardware-enforced DEP, DEP is enabled by
default for limited system binaries and programs that "opt-in." With
this option, only Windows system binaries are covered by DEP by default.
"

I'm almost positive that the limited system binaries do not include
Internet Explorer. At the time they made this configuration decision too
many controls were broken by turning on DEP by default. 

And the policy is the same in Vista. For now.

Larry Seltzer
eWEEK.com Security Center Editor
http://security.eweek.com/
http://blog.eweek.com/blogs/larry%5Fseltzer/
Contributing Editor, PC Magazine
larryseltzer at ziffdavis.com