Event
Ph.D. Research Proposal Exam: Erin Avllazagaj
Tuesday, April 4, 2023
11:00 a.m.
IRB-5237 (CMNS)
Maria Hoo
301 405 3681
mch@umd.edu
ANNOUNCEMENT: Ph.D. Research Proposal Exam
Name: Erin Avllazagaj
Committee:
Prof. Tudor Dumitras (Chair)
Prof. Nirupam Roy
Prof. Uzi Vishkin
Date/time: Thursday, May 4, 2023 at 11:00 - 1:00pm
Location: IRB-5237 (CMNS)
Title:
AUTOMATIC EXPLORATION OF THE VULNERABILITY LANDSCAPE IN LINUX KERNEL DRIVERS
Abstract:
Many steps in Linux kernel exploitation remain largely an art. When exploit authors obtain a capability to overwrite certain kernel memory locations they resort to corrupting targets documented in prior writeups. Many of these techniques are only known because prior exploit authors revealed them. I propose to automatically discover and analyze sensitive fields introduced by kernel drivers. This is a particularly challenging task since the kernel drivers don’t directly control files and user-mapped memory. That task is delegated to the native kernel code. Therefore,I propose a more extensible exploitable state definition that relies on the capability. Additionally, to automatically search for capability escalation I propose a novel system based on formal program analysis to prove that the capabilities can be chained. My proposed project represents a significant step forward in the systematic discovery of sensitive fields in the Linux kernel, providing an extensible methodology for exploiting any memory corruption vulnerability in the kernel by systematically discovering new reusable exploitation techniques.
