Gray Hat Hacking, Second Edition, 2nd Edition

Kernel Space Shellcode

User space programs are not the only type of code that contains vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities are also present in operating system kernels and their components, such as device drivers. The fact that these vulnerabilities are present within the relatively protected environment of the kernel does not make them immune from exploitation. It has been primarily due to the lack of information on how to create shellcode to run within the kernel that working exploits for kernel level vulnerabilities have been relatively scarce. This is particularly true regarding the Windows kernel; little documentation on the inner workings of the Windows kernel exists outside of the Microsoft campus. Recently, however, there has been an increasing ...