linux-kernel - Re: [BUG] perf: bogus correlation of kernel symbols

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Date:	Fri, 20 May 2011 20:42:54 +0200
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
To:	Dan Rosenberg <drosenberg@...curity.com>
Cc:	Kees Cook <kees.cook@...onical.com>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, davej@...hat.com,
	davem@...emloft.net, eranian@...gle.com, adobriyan@...il.com,
	penberg@...nel.org
Subject: Re: [BUG] perf: bogus correlation of kernel symbols

* Dan Rosenberg <drosenberg@...curity.com> wrote:

> At least one distro (Red Hat) ships with panic_on_oops enabled by default, so 
> attackers don't get more than one chance.  Likewise, vulnerabilities in 
> interrupt context will only have one chance, as will any issue where failed 
> exploitation prevents subsequent attempts, as is frequently the case due to 
> failures to clean up locking primitives on an OOPS.

So it's basically a last line of defense: the attacker has to assume the risk 
of the attack being detected.

That has a chilling effect on some types of attacks: especially those where the 
attacker goes against a high value target with a zero day kernel exploit. 
Risking a crash does not just mean possibly alerting the target, but also means 
possibly losing the zero-day exploit - if that oops log gets to a kernel 
developer who starts wondering about the weird backtrace.

Thanks,

	Ingo
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