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posted by janrinok on Saturday June 11 2016, @05:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the simple-but-smart dept.

El Reg published an article that describes a clever technique Intel is considering implementing in future CPU designs to prevent certain types of malware infections called Control-flow Enforcement Technology (CET) [PDF], those that use return-orientated programming (ROP) and jump-orientated programming (JOP) to implement exploits:

CET works by introducing a shadow stack – which only contains return addresses, is held in system RAM, and is protected by the CPU's memory management unit. When a subroutine is called, the return address is stashed on the thread's stack, as per normal, and also in the shadow stack. When the processor reaches a return instruction, the processor ensures the return address on the thread stack matches the address on the shadow stack.

If they don't match, then an exception is raised, allowing the operating system to catch and stop execution. Therefore, if exploit code starts tampering with the stack to chain together malicious instructions to install malware or otherwise compromise a system, these alterations will be detected and the infiltration halted before any damage can be done.

Given that these are two of the major techniques used by exploit authors to perform arbitrary code execution, being able to block such attempts through hardware could make digital life a little bit safer.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @10:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2016, @10:33PM (#358442)

    They're trying to plug the rooting hole, knowing every chip manufacturer will follow suit and license Intel's patent.

    This is all about corporations retaining control of our computers, not 'providing security for the owner of the system.'

    Intel already has unerasable signed ME code that has bus level access to the network at all times. Imagine when the next bios updates come out that require cryto signed bios in order to even boot (they already did it on some of the 'maker' embedded boards, see coreboot for references. Required getting your key/bios signed by intel in order to boot on your device.)

    It is not much of a stretch to imagine this on all consumer available hardware in the near future. Doesn't even require the government to make obvious laws disallowing it, the steady march of progress takes care of that, as long as the back room pacts ensure the hardware is suitably locked down over time.

    I scoffed at Continuum when it came on the air as being too fictiony. By the time it had ended it didn't seem too farfetched.