# SLUB & Buddy System in Linux Kernel

Contents

CTF games have flourished in recent years. However, more GLIBC heap allocator exploit techiniques are becoming boring and meaningless, especially for games in China. Challenges are well-designed, deliberately constructed, leading to specific ways to solve them, which is actually further and further away from real world exploits. I started to aim more at Linux kernel memory allocator these days and gathered some imformation about Buddy System & SLUB hitherto.

## Buddy System

Buddy allocation system is an algorithm in which a larger memory block is divided into small parts to satisfy the request. This algorithm is used to give best fit[1].

There are couple of types of Buddy allocation system

• Binary buddy system
• Fibonacci buddy system
• Weighted buddy system
• Tertiary buddy system

In Binary buddy system, memory is allocated and freed in PAGE_SIZE (e.g. 4K) using order to indicate size of chunks. Typically we have

SIZE [of chunks of order=n] = 2^n * PAGE_SIZE

We note an example from wiki[2]. Suppose minimum size of chunk is 64K and maximum order of chunk is 4, and user tries to allocate memory of 34K.

This allocation could have occurred in the following manner

1. The initial situation.
2. Program A requests memory 34 K, order 0.
1. No order 0 blocks are available, so an order 4 block is split, creating two order 3 blocks.
2. Still no order 0 blocks available, so the first order 3 block is split, creating two order 2 blocks.
3. Still no order 0 blocks available, so the first order 2 block is split, creating two order 1 blocks.
4. Still no order 0 blocks available, so the first order 1 block is split, creating two order 0 blocks.
5. Now an order 0 block is available, so it is allocated to A.
3. Program B requests memory 66 K, order 1. An order 1 block is available, so it is allocated to B.
4. Program C requests memory 35 K, order 0. An order 0 block is available, so it is allocated to C.
5. Program D requests memory 67 K, order 1.
1. No order 1 blocks are available, so an order 2 block is split, creating two order 1 blocks.
2. Now an order 1 block is available, so it is allocated to D.
6. Program B releases its memory, freeing one order 1 block.
7. Program D releases its memory.
1. One order 1 block is freed.
2. Since the buddy block of the newly freed block is also free, the two are merged into one order 2 block.
8. Program A releases its memory, freeing one order 0 block.
9. Program C releases its memory.
1. One order 0 block is freed.
2. Since the buddy block of the newly freed block is also free, the two are merged into one order 1 block.
3. Since the buddy block of the newly formed order 1 block is also free, the two are merged into one order 2 block.
4. Since the buddy block of the newly formed order 2 block is also free, the two are merged into one order 3 block.
5. Since the buddy block of the newly formed order 3 block is also free, the two are merged into one order 4 block.

As you can see, what happens when a memory request is made is as follows:

• If memory is to be allocated
1. Look for a memory slot of a suitable size (the minimal 2k block that is larger or equal to that of the requested memory)
1. If it is found, it is allocated to the program
2. If not, it tries to make a suitable memory slot. The system does so by trying the following:
1. Split a free memory slot larger than the requested memory size into half
2. If the lower limit is reached, then allocate that amount of memory
3. Go back to step 1 (look for a memory slot of a suitable size)
4. Repeat this process until a suitable memory slot is found
• If memory is to be freed
1. Free the block of memory
2. Look at the neighboring block – is it free too?
3. If it is, combine the two, and go back to step 2 and repeat this process until either the upper limit is reached (all memory is freed), or until a non-free neighbour block is encountered

Linux complements buddy system mainly by get_free_pages() and alloc_pages(). Memory allocated is continuous and return address of memory can be converted to physical address using const virts_to_phys()

use /proc/buddyinfo and /proc/pagetypeinfo on your computer.

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28  x1do0@x1do0:~/kernel_learning/khop\$ sudo cat /proc/pagetypeinfo Page block order: 9 Pages per block: 512 Free pages count per migrate type at order 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 Node 0, zone DMA, type Unmovable 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 Node 0, zone DMA, type Movable 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Node 0, zone DMA, type Reclaimable 1 1 0 2 2 1 0 1 1 1 Node 0, zone DMA, type HighAtomic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone DMA, type CMA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone DMA, type Isolate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone DMA32, type Unmovable 433 336 227 257 77 26 15 1 3 0 Node 0, zone DMA32, type Movable 13282 9929 4863 441 6437 4340 1477 232 14 53 Node 0, zone DMA32, type Reclaimable 223 139 66 110 25 4 1 2 1 0 Node 0, zone DMA32, type HighAtomic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone DMA32, type CMA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone DMA32, type Isolate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone Normal, type Unmovable 83 151 92 121 41 13 4 3 3 0 Node 0, zone Normal, type Movable 2029 4852 3866 5212 5979 3642 1616 508 173 41 1 Node 0, zone Normal, type Reclaimable 2 9 27 20 4 0 0 1 1 1 Node 0, zone Normal, type HighAtomic 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone Normal, type CMA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Node 0, zone Normal, type Isolate 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Number of blocks type Unmovable Movable Reclaimable HighAtomic CMA Isolate Node 0, zone DMA 1 5 2 0 0 0 Node 0, zone DMA32 91 1398 39 0 0 0 Node 0, zone Normal 127 2088 89 0 0 0 

## SLUB

### Bird’s eye view

Most of the time, memory allocated by buddy system is too large for users. To go to a step further, slub allocator will continue to divide and allocate memory into pieces, just like heap chunks in GLIBC.

Linux modified SLAB codes and come up with a more efficient mechanism, SLUB[3], intended for memory allocation of kernel objects. There are many structures in slub and I paste an execellent picture of framework here.

A more brief version.

kmem_cache is like main_arena in GLIBC, and every kmem_cache contains many slab, each of which is made up of one or more consecutive pages and there are many object of identical size in every pages, which are exposed to users.

Type cat /proc/slabinfo to see more info on your computer.

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142  / # cat /proc/slabinfo slabinfo - version: 2.1 # name : tunables : slabdata fsverity_info 0 0 248 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ip6-frags 0 0 184 22 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 PINGv6 0 0 1280 12 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 RAWv6 12 12 1280 12 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 UDPv6 0 0 1408 11 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 tw_sock_TCPv6 0 0 248 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 request_sock_TCPv6 0 0 304 13 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 TCPv6 0 0 2432 13 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kcopyd_job 0 0 3312 9 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dm_uevent 0 0 2632 12 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 scsi_sense_cache 32 32 128 32 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 mqueue_inode_cache 8 8 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 fuse_request 0 0 144 28 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 fuse_inode 0 0 896 9 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ecryptfs_inode_cache 0 0 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ecryptfs_file_cache 0 0 16 256 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ecryptfs_auth_tok_list_item 0 0 896 9 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 fat_inode_cache 0 0 744 11 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 fat_cache 0 0 40 102 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 squashfs_inode_cache 0 0 768 10 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 jbd2_journal_handle 0 0 48 85 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 jbd2_journal_head 0 0 120 34 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 jbd2_revoke_table_s 0 0 16 256 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ext4_inode_cache 0 0 1096 29 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ext4_allocation_context 0 0 128 32 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ext4_system_zone 0 0 40 102 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ext4_io_end 0 0 64 64 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ext4_pending_reservation 0 0 32 128 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ext4_extent_status 0 0 40 102 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 mbcache 0 0 56 73 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 userfaultfd_ctx_cache 0 0 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dnotify_struct 0 0 32 128 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 pid_namespace 0 0 208 19 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 ip4-frags 0 0 200 20 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 xfrm_dst_cache 0 0 384 10 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 xfrm_state 0 0 768 10 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 PING 8 8 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 RAW 8 8 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 tw_sock_TCP 0 0 248 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 request_sock_TCP 0 0 304 13 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 TCP 0 0 2304 14 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 hugetlbfs_inode_cache 25 25 632 25 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 dquot 0 0 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 eventpoll_pwq 0 0 72 56 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dax_cache 10 10 768 10 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 request_queue 15 15 2104 15 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 biovec-max 32 32 4096 8 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 4 4 0 biovec-128 8 8 2048 8 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 biovec-64 8 8 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 khugepaged_mm_slot 0 0 112 36 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 user_namespace 0 0 536 15 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 uid_cache 32 32 128 32 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 dmaengine-unmap-256 15 15 2176 15 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 dmaengine-unmap-128 14 14 1152 14 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 sock_inode_cache 27 27 896 9 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 3 3 0 skbuff_fclone_cache 8 8 512 8 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 skbuff_head_cache 16 16 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 file_lock_cache 0 0 216 18 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 fsnotify_mark_connector 128 128 32 128 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 net_namespace 0 0 4928 6 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 task_delay_info 102 102 80 51 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 2 2 0 taskstats 0 0 344 23 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 proc_dir_entry 294 294 192 21 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 14 14 0 pde_opener 102 102 40 102 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 proc_inode_cache 72 72 680 12 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 6 6 0 bdev_cache 19 19 832 19 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 shmem_inode_cache 583 583 720 11 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 53 53 0 kernfs_node_cache 14130 14130 136 30 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 471 471 0 mnt_cache 36 36 320 12 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 3 3 0 filp 16 16 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 inode_cache 11024 11024 608 13 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 848 848 0 dentry 11676 11676 192 21 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 556 556 0 names_cache 8 8 4096 8 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 iint_cache 0 0 120 34 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 lsm_file_cache 170 170 24 170 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 buffer_head 0 0 104 39 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 uts_namespace 0 0 440 9 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 nsproxy 73 73 56 73 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 vm_area_struct 57 57 208 19 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 3 3 0 mm_struct 15 15 1088 15 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 files_cache 11 11 704 11 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 signal_cache 84 84 1152 14 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 6 6 0 sighand_cache 60 60 2112 15 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 4 4 0 task_struct 60 60 5632 5 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 12 12 0 cred_jar 84 84 192 21 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 4 4 0 anon_vma_chain 64 64 64 64 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 anon_vma 46 46 88 46 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 pid 96 96 128 32 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 3 3 0 Acpi-Operand 392 392 72 56 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 7 7 0 Acpi-ParseExt 39 39 104 39 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 Acpi-State 51 51 80 51 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 numa_policy 15 15 264 15 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 trace_event_file 1472 1472 88 46 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 32 32 0 ftrace_event_field 3995 3995 48 85 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 47 47 0 pool_workqueue 64 64 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 4 4 0 radix_tree_node 336 336 584 14 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 24 24 0 task_group 12 12 640 12 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 vmap_area 192 192 64 64 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 3 3 0 dma-kmalloc-8k 0 0 8192 4 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-4k 0 0 4096 8 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-2k 0 0 2048 8 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-1k 0 0 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-512 8 8 512 8 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 dma-kmalloc-256 0 0 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-128 0 0 128 32 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-64 0 0 64 64 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-32 0 0 32 128 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-16 0 0 16 256 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-8 0 0 8 512 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-192 0 0 192 21 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 dma-kmalloc-96 0 0 96 42 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-8k 0 0 8192 4 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-4k 0 0 4096 8 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-2k 0 0 2048 8 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-1k 0 0 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-512 0 0 512 8 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-256 0 0 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-192 0 0 192 21 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-128 0 0 128 32 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-96 0 0 96 42 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-64 64 64 64 64 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 1 1 0 kmalloc-rcl-32 0 0 32 128 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-16 0 0 16 256 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-rcl-8 0 0 8 512 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 0 0 0 kmalloc-8k 12 12 8192 4 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 3 3 0 kmalloc-4k 32 32 4096 8 8 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 4 4 0 kmalloc-2k 176 176 2048 8 4 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 22 22 0 kmalloc-1k 416 416 1024 8 2 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 52 52 0 kmalloc-512 320 320 512 8 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 40 40 0 kmalloc-256 512 512 256 16 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 32 32 0 kmalloc-192 420 420 192 21 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 20 20 0 kmalloc-128 384 384 128 32 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 12 12 0 kmalloc-96 714 714 96 42 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 17 17 0 kmalloc-64 2624 2624 64 64 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 41 41 0 kmalloc-32 3328 3328 32 128 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 26 26 0 kmalloc-16 1536 1536 16 256 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 6 6 0 kmalloc-8 2048 2048 8 512 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 4 4 0 kmem_cache_node 192 192 64 64 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 3 3 0 kmem_cache 144 144 448 9 1 : tunables 0 0 0 : slabdata 16 16 0 

The instruction lists all of the current kmem_cache, taking kmalloc-64 for example

• name: name of this kmem_cache
• active_objs: amount of objects being allocated, which is 2624
• num_objs: max number of objects users can allocate, which is 2624
• objsize: size of each object, which is 64 bytes.
• objperslab: max amount of objects per slab, which is 64
• pagesperslab: numbers of pages per slab, which is 1 here

So we can see that, in kmalloc-64 if we allocate n objects.

1. if n>64, more than one slabs are needed.
2. if n>2624, buddy system will allocate a new slab in this kmeme_cache.

### APIs

There are some important APIs for users.

1. create a kmem_cache with specific size and name.
 1 2 3 4 5 6  struct kmem_cache * kmem_cache_create ( const char *name, size_t size, size_t align, unsigned long flags, void (*ctor(void*, struct kmem_cache *, unsigned long), void (*dtor(void*, struct kmem_cache *, unsigned long)); 
1. create a object in specific kmem_cache
 1  void * kmem_cache_alloc (struct kmem_cache * cachep, gfp_t flags); 
1. free a specific object in specific kmem_cache
 1  void kmem_cache_free (struct kmem_cache * cachep, void * objp); 
1. allocate a object in kmalloc-***. Kernel will find a best matched kmem_cache, and if sizes required are more than the biggest size of them (8K), buddy system will help to allocator the memory directly.
 1  void * kmalloc (size_t size, gfp_t flags); 
1. free a object. Kernel will find the page of the object, read out pointer of the object and copy to a freelist, with fd pointer points to next freed object, same as tcache in GLIBC.
 1  void kfree (const void * objp); 

### Details

Let’s go deep into kmalloc-***. As you can see, the smallest is kmalloc-8 and the largest is kmalloc-8k with size of 2^3 to 2^13 bytes. In older kernel version, max size is 2^11 bytes. Details are in the following picture.

kmem_cache_cpu is like a supermarket

• freelist is the header of freed object lists
• page is the header of allocated object lists

And kmem_cache_node is the depository.

• partial points to partially allocated slub lists.
• full points to fully allocated slub lists.

We will go through it step by step together.

#### Allocating process

1. kmem_cache_node and kmem_cache_cpu contain no slub.

2. After an allocation request, buddy system allocates a large chunk of memory, divides it into pieces, returns one piece to users. Now kmem_cache_cpu has a slub ready to use with freelist and page point to correct places.

1. Users continue to require allocation

1. After slab of kmem_cache_cpu is filled with objects, the next allocation will trigger a swtich, putting the previous full slab into the full lists of kmem_cache_node and one not full slab from partial lists to kmem_cache_cpu, and then return a object to users.

1. And finally, all slabs are full. Buddy system stands out again and gives us a brand new empty slab.

Now you may want to ask, how can a slab be added into partial lists? Well, follow me with the process of freeing these objects.

#### Freeing process

Depending on where the object to be free is, there are some kinds of situation.

1. In kmem_cache_cpu, Kernel will put it from page list to freelist list.

2. In not full slab of partial list in kmem_cache_node, mark the object freed.

1. In full slab of full list, free it and put the slab into partial list.

What’s more, if a slub is entirely empty, the whole slab will be freed.

### exploits

If there is a use-after-free slab vulnerability in kernel mode, modifying fd to attack mprobe_path may be an easy way to exploit.

If there is an overflow vulnerability in slab structure, the first thing is to allocate lots of objects to make later objects we allocate continuous. By overwriting the content of next ojbect, we can achieve our goal. For example, use fork to arrange cred structure of child process to the nexe object and zero it out by overflowing the previous object. In [5], author uses shmid_kernel structure to get root privilege.