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CSC 472 · Class 10

Kernel Exploitation and Wrap-Up

20 knowledge points. Work through them in order, or jump to any topic.

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Knowledge Points

01Why Kernel Exploitation Matters → 02The LPE Landscape → 03User Space vs Kernel Space → 04The Attacker Goal: Become uid 0 → 05Kernel Memory: Slabs and the SLUB Allocator → 06Char Devices and ioctl: An Attack Surface → 07Kernel Use-After-Free: The Classic Pattern → 08UAF Timeline: Overlapping a Freed Object → 09Good Victim Objects → 10The Payload: commit_creds(prepare_kernel_cred(0)) → 11Returning Cleanly to User Space → 12Kernel Exploit Lab: QEMU + bzImage + rootfs → 13Unpacking and Repacking the initramfs → 14Kernel Mitigations: Raising the Bar → 15How Each Mitigation Works → 16Modern Trends in Kernel Security → 17The Whole Arc of CSC 472 → 18Secure-Coding Takeaways → 19Careers and Where to Go Next → 20Lab 7 Tie-In and Final Words →