Comprehensive kernel instrumentation via dynamic binary translation

Dynamic binary translation (DBT) is a powerful technique that enables fine-grained monitoring and manipulation of an existing program binary. At the user level, it has been employed extensively to develop various analysis, bug-finding, and security tools. Such tools are currently not available for operating system (OS) binaries since no comprehensive DBT framework exists for the OS kernel. To address this problem, we have developed a DBT framework that runs as a Linux kernel module, based on the user-level DynamoRIO framework. Our approach is unique in that it controls all kernel execution, including interrupt and exception handlers and device drivers, enabling comprehensive instrumentation of the OS without imposing any overhead on user-level code. In this paper, we discuss the key challenges in designing and building an in-kernel DBT framework and how the design differs from user-space. We use our framework to build several sample instrumentations, including simple instruction cou...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: ASPLOS
• Authors: Peter Feiner, Angela Demke Brown, Ashvin Goel
• Keywords: ASPLOS 2012, Dynamic Binary Translation, Kernel Stack, Programming Languages, Programming Languages Processors