Randomizing the memory layout – KASLR

In infosec circles, it’s a well-known fact that, with proc filesystem (procfs) and various powerful “hacking” tools at their disposal (heard of Kali Linux?), a malicious user, knowing in advance the precise location (virtual addresses) of various functions and/or globals within a process’s VAS, could devise an attack to exploit and ultimately compromise a given system. (Why, even knowing the precise location of one well-known function or global in a given kernel could lead to an attack vector!) Thus, for security, to make it near impossible (or at least difficult) for attackers to rely on “known” virtual addresses, user space, as well as kernel space, supports Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Kernel ASLR (KASLR) techniques (often pronounced Ass-ler/Kass-ler).

The keyword here is randomization: this feature, when enabled, changes the location of portions of the process (and kernel...