{"id":983,"date":"2013-01-09T12:19:40","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T12:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/data-execution-prevention\/"},"modified":"2013-01-09T12:19:40","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T12:19:40","slug":"data-execution-prevention","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep","title":{"rendered":"Data Execution Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_data_execution_prevention_mean\">What Does Data Execution Prevention Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Data execution prevention (DEP) is a security feature within operating system that prevents applications from executing code from a non-executable memory location. DEP is a hardware and software enforced technology designed to secure against memory-based code exploits. It was first introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2. It is also available in Linux and the Mac OS.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_data_execution_prevention\">Techopedia Explains Data Execution Prevention<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>DEP works by routinely scanning the memory heaps and stacks for actions of loading data into the memory. The hardware enforced DEP mechanism uses the CPU to mark all memory locations that are flagged with an attribute value for non-execution. Once an abnormality is detected in these locations in terms of code execution, an exception is sent to the primary OS security mechanism. Software enforced DEP only checks for an exception within the functions table of the primary application. This provides protection against security esploits like buffer overflow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Data Execution Prevention Mean? Data execution prevention (DEP) is a security feature within operating system that prevents applications from executing code from a non-executable memory location. DEP is a hardware and software enforced technology designed to secure against memory-based code exploits. It was first introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2. It is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[218,237],"class_list":["post-983","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cybersecurity","definitioncat-servers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Data Execution Prevention (DEP)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Data Execution Prevention and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data Execution Prevention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Data Execution Prevention and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Data Execution Prevention\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-09T12:19:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep\"},\"wordCount\":158,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/50\/data-execution-prevention-dep\",\"name\":\"What is Data Execution Prevention (DEP)? 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