EP003

EP003 Kernel Sunders

Shownotes:
Summary: The job of the OS, attacks against the OS, defense built into the OS
The OS is made up of the kernel and other applications.
OS examples: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, Mainframe
Kernel manages resources, interface between applications and hardware.

HDD
– Bootstrap
– File system

Memory
– allocation/reserves/clears for programs

CPU
– Split task over multiple cores and multiple processors

Other peripherals through drivers

Taxonomy time:
Vulnerability
Exploit
Authorization
Authentication

Attacks: Trick user (by extension computer) to run something malicious
Malicious drivers or compromising an existing driver (e.g. print driver meant to handle conversion of document to printer, not protect the OS)

– How OS memory allocation works
– Privileged programs
– race conditions
– Buffer overflow

References:
Fridge computer
operating system
Basic Input/Output System (a.k.a. BIOS)
Device Driver
define Vulnerability and exploit
define Authentication / authorization
Buffer overflow
define race condition
race condition vulnerability (technical)
Address space layout randomization (ASLR)
Unix permissions
wordpress vulnerability

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