A Guide to Kernel Exploitation

Chapter 1 From User-Land to Kernel-Land Attacks

Information in this Chapter

• Introducing the Kernel and the World of Kernel Exploitation

• Why Doesn't My User-Land Exploit Work Anymore?

• An Exploit Writer's View of the Kernel

• Open Source versus Closed Source Operating Systems

Introduction

This chapter introduces our target, the kernel. After a short discussion of kernel basics, we analyze why exploit writers have shifted their attention from user-land applications to the kernel itself, and we outline the differences between a user-land and a kernel-land exploit. Then we focus on the differences between various kernels. As well as discussing the ways in which Windows kernels are different from UNIX kernels, we explore how architectural ...