Kernel Hardening With Protection Keys

Explore a conference talk that demonstrates how protection keys (pkeys) can be leveraged as a lightweight alternative to hypervisor-based solutions for kernel hardening against data-only attacks. Learn about this hardware mechanism that provides per-thread and easily switchable memory views, currently available to userspace but underutilized for kernel security enhancement. Discover how pkeys can protect critical kernel data structures including page tables and credentials, with practical implementation details and performance evaluation results on arm64 architecture. Gain insights into the trade-offs involved in this approach and understand its feasibility for real-world deployment in future Linux hardening efforts, presented by Kevin Brodsky from Arm at this Linux Foundation conference session.