Linux hardening and security measures against Memory corruption

The exploding popularity of Embedded/IoT computing facilitate this security problems using low or non-existent security policies and exploits countermeasures. So why not explore some security measures that are widely available in the Linux world? We will focus on memory corruption techniques.

The Linux kernel was always focused on security features and giving bad times to the exploiters. This talk will introduce some common exploits and techniques, showing the mitigations employed by the kernel. By focusing on the major threats that affects modern Linux boxes, we will see which are the main features that can give problems to the system administator and how a preliminary penetration test can be done, ensuring that the system is in a sane state. The talk will also focus on problematics of embedded/IoT Unix systems, showing how some recent attacks gained control over a big network of devices and how a simple embedded system can be analyzed, hunting for bugs. Talk outline: Penetration testing, Linux, netfilter/bpf, memory corruption, ASLR, Spectre/Meltdown.