[Top][All Lists]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [Gcl-devel] Re: Executable memory: some apps that work on RH9 don't
From: |
Camm Maguire |
Subject: |
Re: [Gcl-devel] Re: Executable memory: some apps that work on RH9 don't on FC1 |
Date: |
18 Nov 2003 10:57:39 -0500 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 |
Greetings!
Roland McGrath <address@hidden> writes:
> how to fix it. There is at least one known issue of this nature (brk
> address). Please try to determine if nonexecutability alone is what's
^^^^^^^
Sounds likely. What is this? We make heavy use of sbrk.
> breaking you, and if not, please post the details of your problem so we can
> determine what different problem there might be.
>
> The status quo ante was that the stack was executable, and the brk area
> (used by malloc for small allocations) was executable, and on x86 pages
> with PROT_READ set but PROT_EXEC did not have any enforcement of
> nonexecutability anyway. All of these things are either just as they were
> before, or different now, on a per-process granularity (changed by exec
> calls).
>
Can't see how executability could result in the reported failure. My
bet is on the above.
> System-wide, you can disable the exec-shield functionality with:
>
> echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/exec-shield
>
Does this only effect PROT_EXEC settings on memory pages? If so, then
Tim's results indicate that I am wrong, in which case I'd like to
understand where executable maps matter in GCL at the stage of the
reported failure.
> If that doesn't make your binaries work, then you probably have a different
> problem. If it does, then the system-wide switch is a stop-gap you can use
> while getting your binaries fixed. We have also overloaded the inherited
> "personality" setting so you can disable it per-process:
>
> setarch i386 foobar
>
> That runs "foobar" with the "personality" bits set such that exec-shield is
> disabled for that process and its children (unless one of them uses setarch
> or is setuid or somesuch). Again, if that doesn't make your binaries work,
> then you probably have a different problem.
This at least could function as a work-around for now, if we can make
configure figure out when it is needed (cat
/proc/sys/kernel/exec-shield && [ -x setarch ] ?) If this is the
wisest solution, let me know and I'll protect the image creations with
this command.
>
> If disabling exec-shield momentarily does work around your problem, then
> you want to figure out why you had to do that. The most common situation
> is that you were using executable stack in some way that you don't really
> need to, e.g. GCC nested function trampolines. You can avoid that by
> rewriting the code not to use trampolines (i.e. take the address of a
> nested function that uses its parent's local variables). Things like Lisp
To my knowledge, we have no nested functions, nor rely on an
executable C stack.
> systems that produce executable code at run time should generally avoid
> using stack space for that. You also should not be using malloc or direct
> brk/sbrk calls to get memory that you need to be executable--you have never
> had a specified guarantee that malloc returns executable memory. For
We get all pages via sbrk, and redefine malloc to a call to a native
memory management system which in turn calls sbrk as needed. If an
executable lisp object is loaded into one of these pages, the pages
are explicitly mprotected with PROT_EXEC. The reported failure is
well in advance of this stage.
> dynamic allocation of memory where you need to put executable code, use
> mmap with PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE|PROT_EXEC. It is also fine to mmap with
> different protections and then use mprotect with e.g. PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC
> later. It is not proper to call mprotect on memory returned by malloc,
> because when you free that memory later it may be reused in ways that don't
> require the executability.
This is probably not an issue with us, as we only effectively use
sbrk, and the pages are never freed. We do on occasion re-mprotected
previously mprotected pages, e.g. when setting a gbc write barrier
with the call (si::sgc-on t).
> The same goes for the brk area. (It's also the
> case that no specification guarantees that mprotect is meaningful on
> malloc-returned space, though in fact it will also work as you expect on
> malloc and brk/sbrk space in Linux and probably all Unixoid systems.)
>
>From this, my current understanding is that we should be OK as is.
> If you have a genuine need for executable stack, you can put a marker in
> your binary to tell the system that's what you want. This marker goes in
> ELF executables (and DSOs) as the PT_GNU_STACK phdr entry, with p_flags
> containing PF_X to indicate need for executable stack and not containing
> PF_X to indicate no need for executable stack. I'll describe how to
> compile those markers in a little later. When a binary does not have any
> PT_GNU_STACK marker at all, as is the case with binaries produced by all
> older tool versions, it's treated as needing executable stack to be safe.
> That should retain compatibility with older systems.
As stated above, I can't see where we would need this, though its nice
to know.
>
> The story is the same for DSOs as for executable files. The difference is
> that while the kernel looks for the marker in executable files at exec
> time, the dynamic linker looks at the marker in DSOs when it's loading
> them. This is because an executable file that itself does not require an
> executable stack might load a DSO at runtime (either as a needed library or
> by using dlopen, e.g. for plug-in libraries) that does require executable
> stack. In this instance, the dynamic linker stops and makes all the stacks
> executable before completing the load of the DSO in question. Note that
> this support applies only to the stack--if a DSO dynamically allocates
> memory it needs to be executable and does that the wrong way, no marker
> will work around it, the code just has to be fixed.
>
> If you have an old DSO binary that it's not feasible for you to rebuild for
> some reason (e.g. 3rd-party plug-ins for your applications), you can try
> marking it using the `execstack' utility (part of the `prelink' rpm).
> execstack edits an existing ELF binary for you, either to add a
> PT_GNU_STACK phdr if it's missing or to set or clear the PF_X flag.
> `execstack -q FILE' will tell you the current status of that file: X for
> executable, - for not, and ? for an old binary with no marker at all. (You
> can also use readelf -l or objdump -p to see the phdrs.) Note that there
Are these utils in any (unstable) Debian packages?
> should never really be a need to add a marker to an old executable file
> because of the compatibility default--a good thing, since execstack cannot
> move things around to make room for the phdr in an executable as it can in
> a DSO. Remember, the default when there is no marking is to assume
> executable stack is required for compatibility with older systems. Ergo,
> you don't need to add a marker if it would have PF_X set. The reason to
> add a marker is to avoid enabling executable stack at runtime when it's not
> really needed.
Would be interesting to check if a raw_pre_gcl compiled on an older
system would run on this new exec-shield kernel.
>
> When compiling from source with current tools (including those in FC1), you
> don't usually need to do anything special to get the right markers into
> your binaries. The way it works is that the linker produces the
> PT_GNU_STACK marker when there are special marker sections in the input
> object files, called ".note.GNU-stack". The flags of these sections
> determine the flags of the PT_GNU_STACK entry. Your object files (.o) will
> normally have these sections because GCC emits them in its assembler
> output. When GCC compiles nested function trampoline code, it emits a
> .note.GNU-stack section with the SHF_EXECINSTR flag set:
>
> .section .note.GNU-stack, "x", @progbits
> .previous
>
> When GCC compiles a module that does not contain any code requiring
> executable stack, it emits the complementary marker section with no
> SHF_EXECINSTR flag bit:
>
> .section .note.GNU-stack, "", @progbits
> .previous
>
So even with nested functions, code should compile and run from
source, right? Further indication that executable stack is likely not
relevant.
> If you have assembly code of your own, then you need to add these markers.
> The best way is to amend the source code with one of the assembly
> directives above. If that is problematic for some reason, another thing
> you can do is tell the assembler directly what to emit on the command line
> using -Wa,--execstack or -Wa,--noexecstack. Finally, if you want to punt
> altogether on marking your .o files properly, you can tell the linker to
> ignore the marker sections and override its output setting directly on the
> command using -Wl,-z,execstack or -Wl,-z,noexecstack.
>
We don't use any asm.
Thank you for this very intersting and informative note! I'll keep it
for future reference.
Take care,
>
> Thanks,
> Roland
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gcl-devel mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gcl-devel
>
>
--
Camm Maguire address@hidden
==========================================================================
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens." -- Baha'u'llah
- [Gcl-devel] Re: Executable memory: some apps that work on RH9 don't on FC1, Tim Daly, 2003/11/17
- Re: [Gcl-devel] Re: Executable memory: some apps that work on RH9 don't on FC1, Camm Maguire, 2003/11/17
- [Gcl-devel] Re: Executable memory: some apps that work on RH9 don't on FC1, Roland McGrath, 2003/11/17
- Re: [Gcl-devel] Re: Executable memory: some apps that work on RH9 don't on FC1,
Camm Maguire <=
- [Gcl-devel] exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, Roland McGrath, 2003/11/18
- [Gcl-devel] Re: exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, root, 2003/11/18
- [Gcl-devel] Re: exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, Roland McGrath, 2003/11/18
- [Gcl-devel] Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, root, 2003/11/18
- [Gcl-devel] Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, root, 2003/11/19
- Re: [Gcl-devel] exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, Camm Maguire, 2003/11/18
- Re: [Gcl-devel] exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, Roland McGrath, 2003/11/19
- Re: [Gcl-devel] exec-shield mmap & brk randomization, Camm Maguire, 2003/11/19