/highentropyva (Visual Basic)

Indicates whether a 64-bit executable or an executable that's marked by the /platform:anycpu compiler option supports high entropy Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR).

/highentropyva[+ | -]

Arguments

  • + | -
    Optional. The option is off by default or if you specify /highentropyva-. The option is on if you specify /highentropyva or /highentropyva+.

Remarks

If you specify this option, compatible versions of the Windows kernel can use higher degrees of entropy when the kernel randomizes the address space layout of a process as part of ASLR. If the kernel uses higher degrees of entropy, a larger number of addresses can be allocated to memory regions such as stacks and heaps. As a result, it is more difficult to guess the location of a particular memory region.

When the option is on, the target executable and any modules on which it depends must be able to handle pointer values that are larger than 4 gigabytes (GB) when those modules are running as 64-bit processes.

For more information about ASLR, see Mitigating Software Vulnerabilities.

See Also

Reference

Sample Compilation Command Lines (Visual Basic)

Other Resources

Visual Basic Command-Line Compiler