Chapter 10: Linux Kernel Exploits

Now that you have a functional understanding of how to elevate your privileges on Windows systems, we can begin exploring the process of elevating our privileges on Linux systems. The first privilege escalation attack vector we will be exploring in this chapter is kernel exploitation.

In this chapter, you will learn how to identify, transfer, and utilize kernel exploits on Linux both manually and automatically. This process will mirror the same methodology we used in Chapter 5, Windows Kernel Exploits, where we explored the kernel exploitation process on Windows.

We will start by taking a look at how the Linux kernel works and how to identify kernel vulnerabilities on Linux by using local enumeration scripts. After this, we will explore the process of modifying, compiling, and transferring kernel exploits to the target system.

In this chapter, we're going to cover the following main topics:

• Understanding the Linux kernel
• Kernel...