Linux 2.6 kernel exploits

Abstract

Exploits are increasingly targeting operating system kernel vulnerabilities. For one, applications in user space are better protected by the developers and the kernel than in the past. Second, the promise of a successful kernel exploit is tantalizing full control over the targeted environment. Under Linux, kernel space exploits differ noticeably from user space exploits. Constraints such as execution context problems, module relocation, system calls usage prerequisites and kernel shellcode development have to be dealt with. These kernel exploits are the focus of this paper. We first give an overview of major kernel data structures which are used to handle processes under Linux 2.6 on an Intel IA-32 architecture. We then illustrate the aforementioned constraints by means of two practical Wifi Linux Drivers Stack Overflow exploits.