Kernel Module

A loadable kernel module (LKM) is an object file that contains code to extend the running kernel, or so-called base kernel, of an operating system. LKMs are typically used to add support for new hardware (as device drivers) and/or filesystems, or for adding system calls. When the functionality provided by a LKM is no longer required, it can be unloaded in order to free memory and other resources. Most current Unix-like systems and Microsoft Windows support loadable kernel modules, although they might use a different name for them, such as kernel loadable module (kld) in FreeBSD, kernel extension (kext) in macOS,[1] kernel extension module in AIX, kernel-mode driver in Windows NT[2] and downloadable kernel module (DKM) in VxWorks. They are also known as kernel loadable modules (or KLM), and simply as kernel modules (KMOD).

ID: d3f:KernelModule
Type:

Informational References

https://d3fend.mitre.org/dao/artifact/d3f:KernelModule/

D3FEND Techniques

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SPARTA Countermeasures

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