View Proposal

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Proposer

Adam Sampson

Title

Introduce randomness into kernel compilation

Goal

ASLR, but more so!

Description

The Linux kernel, like Linux userspace, takes advantage of address space layout randomisation (ASLR) to make it harder for an attacker to predict memory addresses within the kernel. But we could go further than this with some help from the compiler - you could also randomise the layout of the stack frame, the layout of structs in the kernel, and so on. This would mean compiling a new kernel each time you upgrade the kernel (or even each time you reboot), but that may be a price worth paying - and Fabrice Bellard's tccboot project showed that this can be done with relatively low overhead.

Resources

Background

Url

Difficulty Level

Challenging

Ethical Approval

None

Number Of Students

1

Supervisor

Adam Sampson

Keywords

linux, security, aslr, kernel

Degrees

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems
Bachelor of Science in Software Development for Business (GA)
Master of Engineering in Software Engineering
Master of Design in Games Design and Development
Master of Science in Computer Science for Cyber Security
Master of Science in Computing (2 Years)
Master of Science in Information Technology (Software Systems)
Master of Science in Network Security
Master of Science in Software Engineering
Bachelor of Science in Computing Science
Bachelor of Engineering in Robotics
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Cyber Security)