Kernel Address Space Layout Randomization
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Kernel Address Space Layout Randomization
Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a computer security technique involved in preventing exploitation of memory corruption vulnerabilities. In order to prevent an attacker from reliably redirecting code execution to, for example, a particular exploited function in memory, ASLR randomly arranges the address space positions of key data areas of a process, including the base of the executable and the positions of the stack, heap and libraries. When applied to the kernel, this technique is called ''kernel address space layout randomization'' (''KASLR''). History The Linux PaX project first coined the term "ASLR", and published the first design and implementation of ASLR in July 2001 as a patch for the Linux kernel. It is seen as a complete implementation, providing a patch for kernel stack randomization since October 2002. The first mainstream operating system to support ASLR by default was OpenBSD version 3.4 in 2003, followed by Linux in 2005. Benefits Address ...
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Computer Security
Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, networks from Threat (security), threats that can lead to unauthorized information disclosure, theft or damage to computer hardware, hardware, software, or Data (computing), data, as well as from the disruption or misdirection of the Service (economics), services they provide. The significance of the field stems from the expanded reliance on computer systems, the Internet, and wireless network standards. Its importance is further amplified by the growth of smart devices, including smartphones, televisions, and the various devices that constitute the Internet of things (IoT). Cybersecurity has emerged as one of the most significant new challenges facing the contemporary world, due to both the complexity of information systems and the societi ...
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Virtual Memory
In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage, is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a very large (main) memory". The computer's operating system, using a combination of hardware and software, maps memory addresses used by a program, called '' virtual addresses'', into ''physical addresses'' in computer memory. Main storage, as seen by a process or task, appears as a contiguous address space or collection of contiguous segments. The operating system manages virtual address spaces and the assignment of real memory to virtual memory. Address translation hardware in the CPU, often referred to as a memory management unit (MMU), automatically translates virtual addresses to physical addresses. Software within the operating system may extend these capabilities, utilizing, e.g., disk storage, to provide a virtual address space ...
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Glibc
The GNU C Library, commonly known as glibc, is the GNU Project implementation of the C standard library. It provides a wrapper around the system calls of the Linux kernel and other kernels for application use. Despite its name, it now also directly supports C++ (and, indirectly, other programming languages). It was started in the 1980s by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU operating system. glibc is free software released under the GNU Lesser General Public License. The GNU C Library project provides the core libraries for the GNU system, as well as many systems that use Linux kernel, Linux as the kernel (operating system), kernel. These libraries provide critical APIs including ISO C11 (C standard revision), C11, POSIX.1-2008, Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD, OS-specific APIs and more. These APIs include such foundational facilities as open (system call), open, read (system call), read, write (system call), write, malloc, printf format string, printf, getaddrin ...
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Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for Computer data storage, digital information. The International System of Units (SI) defines the prefix ''kilo-, kilo'' as a multiplication factor of 1000 (103); therefore, one kilobyte is 1000 bytes.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quantities and Units – Part 13: Information science and technology, International Electrotechnical Commission (2008). The internationally recommended unit symbol for the kilobyte is kB. In some areas of information technology, particularly in reference to random-access memory capacity, ''kilobyte'' instead often refers to 1024 (210) bytes. This arises from the prevalence of sizes that are powers of two in modern digital memory architectures, coupled with the coincidence that 210 differs from 103 by less than 2.5%. The kibibyte is defined as 1024 bytes, avoiding the ambiguity issues of the ''kilobyte''.International Standard IEC 80000-13 Quantities and Units – Part 13: Information scien ...
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Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes of information. This definition has been incorporated into the International System of Quantities. In the computer and information technology fields, other definitions have been used that arose for historical reasons of convenience. A common usage has been to designate one megabyte as (220 B), a quantity that conveniently expresses the binary architecture of digital computer memory. Standards bodies have deprecated this binary usage of the mega- prefix in favor of a new set of binary prefixes, by means of which the quantity 220 B is named mebibyte (symbol MiB). Definitions The unit megabyte is commonly used for 10002 (one million) bytes or 10242 bytes. The interpretation of using base 1024 originated as technical jargon for the byte m ...
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Shellcode Injection
In hacking, a shellcode is a small piece of code used as the payload in the exploitation of a software vulnerability. It is called "shellcode" because it typically starts a command shell from which the attacker can control the compromised machine, but any piece of code that performs a similar task can be called shellcode. Because the function of a payload is not limited to merely spawning a shell, some have suggested that the name shellcode is insufficient. However, attempts at replacing the term have not gained wide acceptance. Shellcode is commonly written in machine code. When creating shellcode, it is generally desirable to make it both small and executable, which allows it to be used in as wide a variety of situations as possible. In assembly code, the same function can be performed in a multitude of ways and there is some variety in the lengths of opcodes that can be used for this purpose; good shellcode writers can put these small opcodes to use to create more compact ...
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Variable Argument List
In mathematics and in computer programming, a variadic function is a function of indefinite arity, i.e., one which accepts a variable number of arguments. Support for variadic functions differs widely among programming languages. The term ''variadic'' is a neologism, dating back to 1936/1937. The term was not widely used until the 1970s. Overview There are many mathematical and logical operations that come across naturally as variadic functions. For instance, the summing of numbers or the concatenation of strings or other sequences are operations that can be thought of as applicable to any number of operands (even though formally in these cases the associative property is applied). Another operation that has been implemented as a variadic function in many languages is output formatting. The C function and the Common Lisp function are two such examples. Both take one argument that specifies the formatting of the output, and ''any number'' of arguments that provide the value ...
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Printf
printf is a C standard library function that formats text and writes it to standard output. The function accepts a format c-string argument and a variable number of value arguments that the function serializes per the format string. Mismatch between the format specifiers and count and type of values results in undefined behavior and possibly program crash or other vulnerability. The format string is encoded as a template language consisting of verbatim text and ''format specifiers'' that each specify how to serialize a value. As the format string is processed left-to-right, a subsequent value is used for each format specifier found. A format specifier starts with a character and has one or more following characters that specify how to serialize a value. The standard library provides other, similar functions that form a family of ''printf-like'' functions. The functions share the same formatting capabilities but provide different behavior such as output to a differen ...
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Format String Vulnerability
Uncontrolled format string is a type of code injection vulnerability discovered around 1989 that can be used in security exploits. Originally thought harmless, format string exploits can be used to crash a program or to execute harmful code. The problem stems from the use of unchecked user input as the format string parameter in certain C functions that perform formatting, such as printf(). A malicious user may use the %s and %x format tokens, among others, to print data from the call stack or possibly other locations in memory. One may also write arbitrary data to arbitrary locations using the %n format token, which commands printf() and similar functions to write the number of bytes formatted to an address stored on the stack. Details A typical exploit uses a combination of these techniques to take control of the instruction pointer (IP) of a process, for example by forcing a program to overwrite the address of a library function or the return address on the stack with a poi ...
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Heap Spraying
In computer security, heap spraying is a technique used in exploits to facilitate arbitrary code execution. The part of the source code of an exploit that implements this technique is called a heap spray. In general, code that ''sprays the heap'' attempts to put a certain sequence of bytes at a predetermined location in the memory of a target process by having it allocate (large) blocks on the process's heap and fill the bytes in these blocks with the right values. Operation A heap spray does not actually exploit any security issues but it can be used to make a vulnerability easier to exploit. A heap spray by itself cannot be used to break any security boundaries: a separate security issue is needed. Exploiting security issues is often hard because various factors can influence this process. Chance alignments of memory and timing introduce a lot of randomness (from the attacker's point of view). A heap spray can be used to introduce a large amount of order to compensate for th ...
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C Standard Library
The C standard library, sometimes referred to as libc, is the standard library for the C (programming language), C programming language, as specified in the ISO C standard.International Organization for Standardization, ISO/International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC (2018). ''C17 (C standard revision), ISO/IEC 9899:2018(E): Programming Languages - C §7'' Starting from the original ANSI C standard, it was developed at the same time as the C POSIX library, which is a superset of it. Since ANSI C was adopted by the International Organization for Standardization, the C standard library is also called the ISO C library. The C standard library provides macro (computer science), macros, Data type, type definitions and Function (computer programming), functions for tasks such as character string (computer science), string manipulation, mathematical computation, input/output processing, memory management, and input/output. Application programming interface (API) Header files The ...
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64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A computer that uses such a processor is a 64-bit computer. From the software perspective, 64-bit computing means the use of machine code with 64-bit virtual memory addresses. However, not all 64-bit instruction sets support full 64-bit virtual memory addresses; x86-64 and AArch64, for example, support only 48 bits of virtual address, with the remaining 16 bits of the virtual address required to be all zeros (000...) or all ones (111...), and several 64-bit instruction sets support fewer than 64 bits of physical memory address. The term ''64-bit'' also describes a generation of computers in which 64-bit processors are the norm. 64 bits is a word size that defines certain classes of computer archi ...
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