Memory Hardening User Mode Applications

[RanjnaAggarwal]

This is what some line written for the memory hardening in official PDF.

ESXi kernel, user-mode applications, and executable components such as

drivers and libraries are located at random, non-predictable memory

addresses

Is there anyone who can tell me about the user mode applications?

[mcowger]

When you ask these questions, its always best to include a link to the document you are referring to in order to understand context.

[RanjnaAggarwal]

Check this link page number 8:-

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/topic/com.vmware.ICbase/PDF/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-50-securit...

[mcowger]

User mode applications are ones that run outside of kernel space.  So in this case, for ESXi, things like hostd, vpxa, etc are user-mode applications, because they are not kernel processes.

An example on a more traditional OS would be Firefox, MS Word, etc.  They are applications that do not run as part of the kernel.

[RanjnaAggarwal]

so can you give me some example of those applications?

[mcowger · Accepted solution]

SSH into a esxi host.  Run 'ps'.  Almost anything you see if a user mode application.