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LeMo: Protecting kernel with least privilege modules

  • Hongwei Zhou
  • , Jinhui Yuan*
  • , Kai Zhang
  • , Xuhua Zhu
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Information Engineering University
  • Zhongyuan University of Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The Linux kernel is the monolithic kernel, and the boundaries among the objects in the kernel are not particularly clear. Once the malicious module is loaded in the kernel, it can almost access the entire kernel. This breaks the principle of least privilege. To overcome it, in this paper, we propose LeMo which is the novel architecture to hold the module with least privilege in the kernel. In LeMo, the modules are restricted to access the necessary kernel objects. To the end, before the module is loaded in the kernel, the patched kernel build a new page table for the module. With page-based access control, the patched kernel is capable of preventing the malicious modules to arbitrarily access the kernel. We have implemented the prototype of LeMo which provide the tools which load or unload the module. Our evaluation show that LeMo is able to defeat the malicious module with a acceptable performance overhead.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of 2019 IEEE 3rd Information Technology, Networking, Electronic and Automation Control Conference, ITNEC 2019
EditorsBing Xu
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages349-353
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781538662434
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2019
Externally publishedYes
Event3rd IEEE Information Technology, Networking, Electronic and Automation Control Conference, ITNEC 2019 - Chengdu, China
Duration: 15 Mar 201917 Mar 2019

Publication series

NameProceedings of 2019 IEEE 3rd Information Technology, Networking, Electronic and Automation Control Conference, ITNEC 2019

Conference

Conference3rd IEEE Information Technology, Networking, Electronic and Automation Control Conference, ITNEC 2019
Country/TerritoryChina
CityChengdu
Period15/03/1917/03/19

Keywords

  • Access control
  • Loadable module
  • Page table
  • Privilege

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