Jenny: Securing Syscalls for PKU-based Memory Isolation Systems
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Presented at USENIX Security 2022 by
Effective syscall filtering is a key component for withstanding the numerous exploitation techniques and privilege escalation attacks we face today. For example, modern browsers use sandboxing techniques with syscall filtering in order to isolate critical code. Cloud computing heavily uses containers, which virtualize the syscall interface. Recently, cloud providers are switching to in-process containers for performance reasons, calling for better isolation primitives. A new isolation primitive that has the potential to fill this gap is called Protection Keys for Userspace (PKU). Unfortunately, prior research highlights severe deficiencies in how PKU-based systems manage syscalls, questioning their security and practicability.