Kernel Patch Protection (KPP), informally known as PatchGuard, is a feature of 64-bit (x64) editions of Microsoft Windows that prevents patching the kernel. It was first introduced in 2005 with the x64 editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1.
"Patching the kernel" refers to unsupported modification of the central component or kernel of the Windows operating system. Such modification has never been supported by Microsoft because it can greatly reduce system security and reliability. However, though Microsoft does not recommend it, it is technically possible to patch the kernel on x86 editions of Windows. But with the x64 editions of Windows, Microsoft chose to implement technical barriers to kernel patching.
Since patching the kernel is technically permitted in 32-bit (x86) editions of Windows, several antivirus software developers use kernel patching to implement antivirus and other security services. This kind of antivirus software will not work on computers running x64 editions of Windows. Because of this, Kernel Patch Protection has been criticized for forcing antivirus makers to redesign their software without using kernel patching techniques.
Also, because of the design of the Windows kernel, Kernel Patch Protection cannot completely prevent kernel patching. This has led to additional criticism that since KPP is an imperfect defense, the problems caused to antivirus makers outweigh the benefits because authors of malicious software will simply find ways around its defenses. Nevertheless, Kernel Patching can still prevent system stability and reliability problems caused by legitimate software patching the kernel in unsupported ways.
Read more about Kernel Patch Protection: Technical Overview, Advantages
Famous quotes containing the words kernel, patch and/or protection:
“All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.”
—Anne Brontë (1820–1849)
“I sing a hero’s head, large eye
And bearded bronze, but not a man,
Although I patch him as I can
And reach through him almost to man.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected—those, precisely, who need the laws’s protection most!—and listens to their testimony.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)