How is kernel protected?

How is kernel protected?

Modern hardware has features that allow the OS kernel to protect itself from untrusted user code. An executing stream of instructions and its CPU register context. An execution context for thread(s) that provides an independent name space for addressing some or all of physical memory.

What are guard pages?

A guard page provides a one-shot alarm for memory page access. This can be useful for an application that needs to monitor the growth of large dynamic data structures. For example, there are operating systems that use guard pages to implement automatic stack checking.

What is stack clash protection?

Stack clash is an attack that dates back to 2017, when the Qualys Research Team released an advisory with a joint blog post. It basically exploits large stack allocation (greater than PAGE_SIZE ) that can lead to stack read/write not triggering the stack guard page allocated by the Linux Kernel.

What is kernel DMA protection?

Kernel DMA Protection, (also known as Memory Access Protection, is a feature of a Windows 10 Secured-core PC that is supported on Intel and AMD platforms starting with Windows 10, version 1803 and Windows 10, version 1809.

What is stack guard page?

The stack guard page was originally meant as a protection against sequential memory access. This results in overlapping stack with another memory region (usually heap) and thus stack memory access is reflected into the heap and vice versa.

How do you solve a new guard page for the stack Cannot be created?

Error message: A new guard page for the stack cannot be created

  1. Open any Excel spreadsheets in the engagement binder individually.
  2. With an Excel spreadsheet open, go to View and click Page Break View.
  3. Review the spreadsheet and check for a large number of extra blank pages.
  4. Delete any large number of extra blank pages.

Should kernel DMA protection be off?

It is recommended to disable the BitLocker DMA attacks countermeasures if the system supports Kernel DMA Protection. Kernel DMA Protection provides higher security bar for the system over the BitLocker DMA attack countermeasures, while maintaining usability of external peripherals.

How do I enable kernel DMA protection?

Using Windows Security application:

  1. Launch Windows Security application from the Windows Start menu.
  2. Click on the “Device Security” icon.
  3. Click on “Core isolation details”.
  4. “Memory Access Protection” will be listed as an available Security Feature, if enabled.