diff --git a/include/osquery/filesystem.h b/include/osquery/filesystem.h
index b5b8f0e5..590ba24c 100644
--- a/include/osquery/filesystem.h
+++ b/include/osquery/filesystem.h
@@ -191,5 +191,29 @@ Status procDescriptors(const std::string& process,
 Status procReadDescriptor(const std::string& process,
                           const std::string& descriptor,
                           std::string& result);
+
+/**
+ * @brief Read bytes from Linux's raw memory.
+ *
+ * Most Linux kernels include a device node /dev/mem that allows priviledged
+ * users to map or seek/read pages of physical memory.
+ * osquery discourages the use of physical memory reads for security and
+ * performance reasons and must first try safer methods for data parsing
+ * such as /sys and /proc.
+ *
+ * A platform user may disable physical memory reads:
+ *   --disable_memory=true
+ * This flag/option will cause readRawMemory to forcefully fail.
+ *
+ * @param base The absolute memory address to read from. This does not need
+ * to be page alined, readRawMem will take care of alignment and only
+ * return the requested start address and size.
+ * @param length The length of the buffer with a max of 0x10000.
+ * @param buffer The output buffer, caller is responsible for resources if
+ * readRawMem returns success.
+ * @return status The status of the read.
+ */
+Status readRawMem(size_t base, size_t length, void** buffer);
+
 #endif
 }
diff --git a/osquery/filesystem/CMakeLists.txt b/osquery/filesystem/CMakeLists.txt
index 0e61ddc8..4855abc5 100644
--- a/osquery/filesystem/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/osquery/filesystem/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ if(APPLE)
   ADD_OSQUERY_CORE_LINK("-framework Foundation")
 elseif(UBUNTU OR CENTOS)
   ADD_OSQUERY_CORE_LIBRARY(osquery_filesystem_linux
+    linux/mem.cpp
     linux/proc.cpp
   )
 endif()
diff --git a/osquery/filesystem/linux/mem.cpp b/osquery/filesystem/linux/mem.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f97c56cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/osquery/filesystem/linux/mem.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+/*
+ *  Copyright (c) 2014, Facebook, Inc.
+ *  All rights reserved.
+ *
+ *  This source code is licensed under the BSD-style license found in the
+ *  LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree. An additional grant
+ *  of patent rights can be found in the PATENTS file in the same directory.
+ *
+ */
+
+#include <sys/mman.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <fcntl.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+
+#include <osquery/filesystem.h>
+#include <osquery/flags.h>
+#include <osquery/logger.h>
+
+namespace osquery {
+
+#define kLinuxMaxMemRead 0x10000
+
+const std::string kLinuxMemPath = "/dev/mem";
+
+DEFINE_osquery_flag(bool,
+                    disable_memory,
+                    false,
+                    "Disable physical memory reads.");
+
+int readMem(int fd, size_t base, size_t length, uint8_t* buffer) {
+  if (lseek(fd, base, SEEK_SET) == -1) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  // Read from raw memory until an unrecoverable read error or the requested
+  // bytes are read.
+  size_t total_read = 0;
+  size_t bytes_read = 0;
+  while (total_read != length && bytes_read != 0) {
+    bytes_read = read(fd, buffer + total_read, length - total_read);
+    if (bytes_read == -1) {
+      if (errno != EINTR) {
+        return -1;
+      }
+    } else {
+      total_read += bytes_read;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // The read finished without reading the requested number of bytes.
+  if (total_read != length) {
+    return -1;
+  }
+
+  return 0;
+}
+
+Status readRawMem(size_t base, size_t length, void** buffer) {
+  *buffer = 0;
+
+  if (!FLAGS_disable_memory) {
+    return Status(1, "Configuration has disabled physical memory reads");
+  }
+
+  if (length > kLinuxMaxMemRead) {
+    return Status(1, "Cowardly refusing to read a large number of bytes");
+  }
+
+  auto status = isReadable(kLinuxMemPath);
+  if (!status.ok()) {
+    // For non-su users *hopefully* raw memory is not readable.
+    return status;
+  }
+
+  int fd = open(kLinuxMemPath.c_str(), O_RDONLY);
+  if (fd < 0) {
+    return Status(1, std::string("Cannot open ") + kLinuxMemPath);
+  }
+
+  if ((*buffer = malloc(length)) == nullptr) {
+    close(fd);
+    return Status(1, "Cannot allocate memory for read");
+  }
+
+#ifdef _SC_PAGESIZE
+  size_t offset = base % sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE);
+#else
+  // getpagesize() is more or less deprecated.
+  size_t offset = base % getpagesize();
+#endif
+
+  // Use memmap for maximum portability over read().
+  auto map = mmap(0, offset + length, PROT_READ, MAP_SHARED, fd, base - offset);
+  if (map == MAP_FAILED) {
+    // Could fallback to a lseek/read.
+    if (readMem(fd, base, length, (uint8_t*)*buffer) == -1) {
+      close(fd);
+      free(*buffer);
+      return Status(1, "Cannot memory map or seek/read memory");
+    }
+  } else {
+    // Memory map succeeded, copy and unmap.
+    memcpy(*buffer, (uint8_t*)map + offset, length);
+    if (munmap(map, offset + length) == -1) {
+      LOG(WARNING) << "Unable to unmap raw memory";
+    }
+  }
+
+  close(fd);
+  return Status(0, "OK");
+}
+}