[hansendc]

> there's no way[0][1] to express R^X, PROT_EXEC without PROT_READ is not possible.

I'll also add a [2]:

[2] There's no way to do it in the page tables. But, if you have Protection Keys for Userspace (PKU), you can get it ... kinda. You can have a PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC mapping, assign it a pkey, then set PKEY_DISABLE_ACCESS in the PKRU register for that key. In fact, if you have a PKU CPU and you do an unadorned mmap(PROT_EXEC), the kernel will allocate you a pkey and do this under the covers FOR you. Anyone who can execute WRPKRU can easily undo this protection, but it's better than nothing.

[brynet]

kinda indeed.

As far as I can tell Intel PKU was only on Server-CPUs/Xeons until at least the 11th Gen (only later models?), and AMD Zen 3.

OpenBSD doesn't support protection keys, in any case.