linux-kernel - Re: [RFC][PATCH] Randomize kernel base address on boot

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Message-ID: <20110527215123.GA45133@dspnet.fr>
Date:	Fri, 27 May 2011 23:51:23 +0200
From:	Olivier Galibert <galibert@...ox.com>
To:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Dan Rosenberg <drosenberg@...curity.com>,
	"Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@...k.pl>, Tony Luck <tony.luck@...il.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, davej@...hat.com,
	kees.cook@...onical.com, davem@...emloft.net, eranian@...gle.com,
	adobriyan@...il.com, penberg@...nel.org, hpa@...or.com,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...radead.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu, pageexec@...email.hu
Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH] Randomize kernel base address on boot

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 08:17:24PM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
>  - A root exploit will still not give away the location of the
>    kernel (assuming module loading has been disabled after bootup),
>    so a rootkit cannot be installed 'silently' on the system, into
>    RAM only, evading most offline-storage-checking tools.
> 
>    With static linking this is not possible: reading the kernel image
>    as root trivially exposes the kernel's location.

There's something I don't get there.  If you managed to escalate your
priviledges enough that you have physical ram access, there's a
billion things you can do to find the kernel, including vector
tracing, pattern matching, looking at the page tables, etc.

What am I missing?

  OG.
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