This code is there not for performance

Posted Feb 13, 2008 15:45 UTC (Wed) by werth1 (guest, #48435)
In reply to: This code is there not for performance by ms
Parent article: vmsplice(): the making of a local root exploit

The answer to the second question "why can the user supply silly values?" is more like:
Because he can.
The user is free to chose any language he wants to interface with the kernel.
In particular the user is free to chose a language without or limited type checks.
So any range checks on system functions have to be in the kernel itself.