BlueHat 2024: S09: Pointer Problems – Why We’re Refactoring the Windows Kernel

BlueHat 2024: Session 09: Pointer Problems – Why We’re Refactoring the Windows Kernel Presented by Joe Bialek from Microsoft Abstract: The Windows kernel ecosystem is facing security and correctness challenges in the face of modern compiler optimizations. These challenges are no longer possible to ignore, nor are they feasible to mitigate with additional compiler features. The only way forward is large-scale refactoring of over 10,000 unique code locations encompassing the kernel and many drivers. This talk provides an overview of some optimizations the compiler performs that are often unexpected for developers. We will show real-life examples of these optimizations creating MSRC cases or correctness problems. Finally, we’ll show what we’re doing to fix the problem, the progress we’ve made in the latest Windows release, and what developers will need to do to ensure their code is also robust.