KShot: Live Kernel Patching with SMM and SGX Lei Zhou∗y, Fengwei Zhang∗, Jinghui Liaoz, Zhengyu Ning∗, Jidong Xiaox Kevin Leach{, Westley Weimer{ and Guojun Wangk ∗Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China, zhoul2019,zhangfw,ningzy2019 @sustech.edu.cn f g ySchool of Computer Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, China zDepartment of Computer Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA,
[email protected] xDepartment of Computer Science, Boise State University, Boise, USA,
[email protected] Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, kjleach,weimerw @umich.edu { f g kSchool of Computer Science and Cyber Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, China,
[email protected] Abstract—Live kernel patching is an increasingly common kernel vulnerabilities also merit patching. Organizations often trend in operating system distributions, enabling dynamic up- use rolling upgrades [3], [6], in which patches are designed dates to include new features or to fix vulnerabilities without to affect small subsystems that minimize unplanned whole- having to reboot the system. Patching the kernel at runtime lowers downtime and reduces the loss of useful state from running system downtime, to update and patch whole server systems. applications. However, existing kernel live patching techniques However, rolling upgrades do not altogether obviate the need (1) rely on specific support from the target operating system, to restart software or reboot systems; instead, dynamic hot and (2) admit patch failures resulting from kernel faults. We patching (live patching) approaches [7]–[9] aim to apply present KSHOT, a kernel live patching mechanism based on patches to running software without having to restart it.