Question

Is it possible, and under what conditions, will the Linux kernel end execution of a program due to a memory write violation, but not due to a memory access violation over the same memory location.

eg

//x is a pointer to a vector of structs
if( (*x)[i].member )
     break;                   //doesn't crash

if( (*x)[i].member )
    (*x)[i].member = 1;      //crashes, even though member is not used 
                             //elsewhere in the program 

Answer 1

That happens if the page where your element is stored is write-protected.
Reads are allowed, but writes not (and the process gets killed if it tries to).

This happens with C and C++ if you try to modify a string that was stored in a read-only section.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
  char *foo = "hello";
  printf("%s\n", foo); // ok
  foo[0] = 'H';        // usually a crash
}