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Date:      Wed, 15 Jul 1998 17:55:54 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Luoqi Chen <luoqi@watermarkgroup.com>
To:        joelh@gnu.org, matthew@wolfepub.com
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Protecting data in memory
Message-ID:  <199807152155.RAA07159@lor.watermarkgroup.com>

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> > Is there any way to protect a programs memory space from all users, even
> > root?
> 
> No.  root always has access to all memory space.  Consider: If it were
> otherwise, root could just patch the kernel and gain whatever access
> was needed.

Actually, if you raise the securelevel to 1 or above, not even root can
access kernel memory space (see init(8)). It is still possible to access
user process memory space through procfs -- procfs doesn't yet check
securelevel before granting access to mem file. To disable procfs,
remove PROCFS option from your kernel config file (you may also want to
compile file systems like NFS into the kernel instead of lkms), make a
new kernel. Remove /proc entry from /etc/fstab, raise securelevel at
the very beginning of your /etc/rc file. Boot from the new kernel, and
you should be all set.

-lq

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