ARM MTE support available for Pixel 8 userspace and kernel

Brief written by the FOSSWire AI editor from Kees Cook How we write

October 26, 2023 1 min read 77 reads

Key Takeaway

The Pixel 8's Tensor G3 hardware supports ARM Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) for improved security against memory flaws.

Summary

The Tensor G3 chip in the Pixel 8 supports ARM Memory Tagging Extension (MTE), providing a defense against linear buffer overflows and use-after-free vulnerabilities. While userspace MTE can be enabled via Android Developer options, kernel-level MTE requires manual configuration using adb to set the 'arm64.memtag.bootctl' property.

Enabling MTE on Pixel 8

Userspace MTE is toggled via Settings > System > Developer options > Memory Tagging Extension.
Kernel MTE is implemented using Kernel Address Sanitizer (KASAN) in Hardware Tagging mode.
Enabling kernel support requires setting the Android system property arm64.memtag.bootctl to include memtag,memtag-kernel via adb shell setprop.
Verification of kernel MTE can be performed by checking for kasan=on in the kernel command line via a bugreport.

Why it matters

This brings hardware-level memory safety features to consumer mobile devices, potentially reducing the impact of common memory corruption exploits.

Original reference: outflux.net →