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The State of Kernel Self Protection Project by Kees Cook, Google

The Linux Foundation

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YouTube
  • Recommended by 1 person: 1 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Kees Cook, Google
  • May be out of date. The tools, versions or practices it shows have likely moved on.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

7.2K views9 years ago1 recommendation

SecuritySystems programmingOperating systemsLinuxWeb and application security

Kees Cook discusses the goals and accomplishments of the Kernel Self-Protection Project in hardening the Linux kernel against security threats.

The State of Kernel Self Protection Project - Kees Cook, Google Last year the Kernel Self-Protection Project was kicked off to address gaps in Linux's defensive technologies. With Linux reaching into every corner of modern life, it becomes an ever-increasing target for attackers and much more needs to be done to harden the kernel so it can project itself. A quick overview will be shown of what we're trying to protect Linux against, as well as the state of the art in available technologies. Also presented will be a summary of the last year's participation by many people over a wide range of technologies, with a review of KSPP project attempts, accomplishments, active efforts, and an examination of future projects and goals. About Kees Cook Kees Cook has been working with Free Software since 1994. He is currently employed by Google to work on IoT Security. From 2006 to 2011 he worked for Canonical as the Ubuntu Security Team's Tech Lead, and remains on the Ubuntu Technical Board. He has written various utilities including GOPchop and Sendpage, and contributes code to OpenSSH, Inkscape, Wine, MPlayer, and Wireshark. He's been spending most of his time lately focused on security features in the Linux kernel.

Why it's here

1 person recommends this

What people say. Recommended as a good overview of the Linux Kernel Self Protection Project and kernel hardening efforts.

lclarkmichalekon Hacker News • Recommends

On “HardenedLinux: The way to the Ark”

> But… till now they’ve hardly accomplished anything compared to what PaX/Grsecurity did, e.g. they ported some mitigations while introducing more (exploitable?) bugs or incomplete implementations That doesn't seem particularly charitable. Regardless of what you think of the Linux Foundation's marketing arm, the KSPP is not a bad thing. They seem to have a very different priority to PaX/Grsecurity, with an emphasis on things that have a clear technical/political/etc path to being enabled by default. I really enjoyed this talk about KSPP's agenda: link to this video

tux1968on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Security things in Linux v4.3”

He gave two talks, the one he referenced in the article, "The State of Kernel Self Protection Project", is here: link to this video All the available videos from the Linux Security Summit are listed here: link

tux1968on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Unsafe at any clock speed: Linux kernel security needs a rethink”

Here is Kees Cook talk from the Linux Security Summit, "The State of Kernel Self Protection Project", he makes the same analogy to car safety in his talk: link to this video All the available videos from the Linux Security Summit are listed here: link

pjmlpon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Proposal: A built-in Go error check function, try”

Really?!? Then you should advise Google on what they are doing wrong. "The State of Kernel Self Protection Project by Kees Cook, Google" link to this video