menu "Kernel hardening options" menu "Memory initialization" choice prompt "Initialize kernel stack variables at function entry" default INIT_STACK_NONE help This option enables initialization of stack variables at function entry time. This has the possibility to have the greatest coverage (since all functions can have their variables initialized), but the performance impact depends on the function calling complexity of a given workload's syscalls. This chooses the level of coverage over classes of potentially uninitialized variables. The selected class will be initialized before use in a function. config INIT_STACK_NONE bool "no automatic initialization (weakest)" help Disable automatic stack variable initialization. This leaves the kernel vulnerable to the standard classes of uninitialized stack variable exploits and information exposures. config INIT_STACK_ALL bool "0xAA-init everything on the stack (strongest)" help Initializes everything on the stack with a 0xAA pattern. This is intended to eliminate all classes of uninitialized stack variable exploits and information exposures, even variables that were warned to have been left uninitialized. endchoice config INIT_ON_ALLOC_DEFAULT_ON bool "Enable heap memory zeroing on allocation by default" help This has the effect of setting "init_on_alloc=1" on the kernel command line. This can be disabled with "init_on_alloc=0". When "init_on_alloc" is enabled, all page allocator and slab allocator memory will be zeroed when allocated, eliminating many kinds of "uninitialized heap memory" flaws, especially heap content exposures. The performance impact varies by workload, but most cases see <1% impact. Some synthetic workloads have measured as high as 7%. config INIT_ON_FREE_DEFAULT_ON bool "Enable heap memory zeroing on free by default" help This has the effect of setting "init_on_free=1" on the kernel command line. This can be disabled with "init_on_free=0". Similar to "init_on_alloc", when "init_on_free" is enabled, all page allocator and slab allocator memory will be zeroed when freed, eliminating many kinds of "uninitialized heap memory" flaws, especially heap content exposures. The primary difference with "init_on_free" is that data lifetime in memory is reduced, as anything freed is wiped immediately, making live forensics or cold boot memory attacks unable to recover freed memory contents. The performance impact varies by workload, but is more expensive than "init_on_alloc" due to the negative cache effects of touching "cold" memory areas. Most cases see 3-5% impact. Some synthetic workloads have measured as high as 8%. endmenu endmenu