Date of Award
Fall 12-2018
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Program
Computer Science
Department
Computer Science
Major Professor
Vassil Roussev
Second Advisor
Joe Sylve
Third Advisor
Christopher Summa
Sixth Advisor
Revise
Abstract
In this paper, we present a working research prototype codeid-elf for ELF binaries based on its Windows counterpart codeid, which can identify kernels through relocation entries extracted from the binaries. We show that relocation-based signatures are unique and distinct and thus, can be used to accurately determine Linux kernel versions and derandomize the base address of the kernel in memory (when kernel Address Space Layout Randomization is enabled). We evaluate the effectiveness of codeid-elf on a subset of Linux kernels and find that the relocations in kernel code have nearly 100\% code coverage and low similarity (uniqueness) across various kernels. Finally, we show that codeid-elf, which leverages relocations in kernel code, can detect all kernel versions in the test set with almost 100% page hit rate and nearly zero false negatives.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Bhatt, Manish, "Leveraging Relocations in ELF-binaries for Linux Kernel Version Identification" (2018). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 2528.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2528
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.