I only found this term "low alignment mode" in the corkami wiki.
standard mode: 200 <= FileAlignment <= SectionAlignment and 1000 <= SectionAlignment
low alignment: 1 <= FileAlignment = SectionAlignment <= 800
The numbers are hex values.
Some possible implications are described by ReversingLabs
It seems low alignment is necessary to make the PE Header writable. However, FileAlignment and SectionAlignment have to be lower than or equal to 200h, which is more restrictive than the low alignment mode above. So I am not sure if this is really a consequence of low alignment or if low alignment mode is just one part of that trick.
In addition it seems that the virtual addresses have to be equal to the physical ones.
I would like to understand this better.
My questions are: What implications has the low alignment mode? How is the way changed the loader loads the PE? Why is it that way?