From: Farid Zakaria <farid.m.zakaria@gmail.com>
To: kees@kernel.org, brauner@kernel.org, viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk
Cc: jack@suse.cz, shuah@kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kselftest@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Farid Zakaria <farid.m.zakaria@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] fs: support $ORIGIN in ELF interpreter paths
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2026 21:39:33 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260622043934.179879-2-farid.m.zakaria@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260622043934.179879-1-farid.m.zakaria@gmail.com>
Currently, standard ELF and ELF FDPIC loaders expect a fixed path to the
dynamic linker/interpreter (PT_INTERP). However, for systems utilizing
relocatable dynamic interpreters (such as Nix/store-based environments),
hardcoding this path is inflexible and breaks binary portability.
Introduce support for resolving the $ORIGIN placeholder in the ELF
interpreter path. This maps the dynamic linker relative to the path
of the binary being executed, matching user-space origin resolution.
To avoid code duplication, implement a shared 'resolve_elf_interpreter()'
helper in the VFS exec layer. For safety, limit detection strictly to
the prefix string "$ORIGIN" to prevent complex parsing exploits.
Assisted-by: Antigravity:Gemini-Pro
Signed-off-by: Farid Zakaria <farid.m.zakaria@gmail.com>
---
fs/binfmt_elf.c | 11 +++++++++--
fs/binfmt_elf_fdpic.c | 15 +++++++++++++--
fs/exec.c | 42 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
include/linux/binfmts.h | 2 ++
4 files changed, 66 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/fs/binfmt_elf.c b/fs/binfmt_elf.c
index 16a56b6b3..af11f96ae 100644
--- a/fs/binfmt_elf.c
+++ b/fs/binfmt_elf.c
@@ -872,7 +872,7 @@ static int load_elf_binary(struct linux_binprm *bprm)
elf_ppnt = elf_phdata;
for (i = 0; i < elf_ex->e_phnum; i++, elf_ppnt++) {
- char *elf_interpreter;
+ char *elf_interpreter, *resolved_interp;
if (elf_ppnt->p_type == PT_GNU_PROPERTY) {
elf_property_phdata = elf_ppnt;
@@ -904,8 +904,15 @@ static int load_elf_binary(struct linux_binprm *bprm)
if (elf_interpreter[elf_ppnt->p_filesz - 1] != '\0')
goto out_free_interp;
- interpreter = open_exec(elf_interpreter);
+ resolved_interp = resolve_elf_interpreter(bprm, elf_interpreter);
kfree(elf_interpreter);
+ if (IS_ERR(resolved_interp)) {
+ retval = PTR_ERR(resolved_interp);
+ goto out_free_ph;
+ }
+
+ interpreter = open_exec(resolved_interp);
+ kfree(resolved_interp);
retval = PTR_ERR(interpreter);
if (IS_ERR(interpreter))
goto out_free_ph;
diff --git a/fs/binfmt_elf_fdpic.c b/fs/binfmt_elf_fdpic.c
index 7e3108489..e85727d71 100644
--- a/fs/binfmt_elf_fdpic.c
+++ b/fs/binfmt_elf_fdpic.c
@@ -230,7 +230,9 @@ static int load_elf_fdpic_binary(struct linux_binprm *bprm)
for (i = 0; i < exec_params.hdr.e_phnum; i++, phdr++) {
switch (phdr->p_type) {
- case PT_INTERP:
+ case PT_INTERP: {
+ char *resolved_interp;
+
retval = -ENOMEM;
if (phdr->p_filesz > PATH_MAX)
goto error;
@@ -259,7 +261,15 @@ static int load_elf_fdpic_binary(struct linux_binprm *bprm)
kdebug("Using ELF interpreter %s", interpreter_name);
/* replace the program with the interpreter */
- interpreter = open_exec(interpreter_name);
+ resolved_interp = resolve_elf_interpreter(bprm, interpreter_name);
+ kfree(interpreter_name);
+ if (IS_ERR(resolved_interp)) {
+ retval = PTR_ERR(resolved_interp);
+ goto error;
+ }
+
+ interpreter = open_exec(resolved_interp);
+ kfree(resolved_interp);
retval = PTR_ERR(interpreter);
if (IS_ERR(interpreter)) {
interpreter = NULL;
@@ -284,6 +294,7 @@ static int load_elf_fdpic_binary(struct linux_binprm *bprm)
interp_params.hdr = *((struct elfhdr *) bprm->buf);
break;
+ }
case PT_LOAD:
#ifdef CONFIG_MMU
diff --git a/fs/exec.c b/fs/exec.c
index b92fe7db1..0978ae613 100644
--- a/fs/exec.c
+++ b/fs/exec.c
@@ -2024,6 +2024,48 @@ static int __init init_fs_exec_sysctls(void)
fs_initcall(init_fs_exec_sysctls);
#endif /* CONFIG_SYSCTL */
+char *resolve_elf_interpreter(struct linux_binprm *bprm, const char *elf_interpreter)
+{
+ char *pathbuf, *path, *slash, *resolved;
+
+ if (strncmp(elf_interpreter, "$ORIGIN", 7) != 0) {
+ char *ret = kstrdup(elf_interpreter, GFP_KERNEL);
+
+ return ret ? ret : ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
+ }
+
+ pathbuf = kmalloc(PATH_MAX, GFP_KERNEL);
+ if (!pathbuf)
+ return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
+
+ path = file_path(bprm->file, pathbuf, PATH_MAX);
+ if (IS_ERR(path)) {
+ kfree(pathbuf);
+ return (char *)path;
+ }
+
+ slash = strrchr(path, '/');
+ if (slash) {
+ if (slash == path)
+ *(slash + 1) = '\0';
+ else
+ *slash = '\0';
+ } else {
+ kfree(pathbuf);
+ char *ret = kstrdup(elf_interpreter, GFP_KERNEL);
+
+ return ret ? ret : ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
+ }
+
+ resolved = kasprintf(GFP_KERNEL, "%s%s", path, elf_interpreter + 7);
+ kfree(pathbuf);
+ if (!resolved)
+ return ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
+
+ return resolved;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(resolve_elf_interpreter);
+
#ifdef CONFIG_EXEC_KUNIT_TEST
#include "tests/exec_kunit.c"
#endif
diff --git a/include/linux/binfmts.h b/include/linux/binfmts.h
index 2c77e383e..17419cd3d 100644
--- a/include/linux/binfmts.h
+++ b/include/linux/binfmts.h
@@ -150,4 +150,6 @@ extern ssize_t read_code(struct file *, unsigned long, loff_t, size_t);
int kernel_execve(const char *filename,
const char *const *argv, const char *const *envp);
+char *resolve_elf_interpreter(struct linux_binprm *bprm, const char *elf_interpreter);
+
#endif /* _LINUX_BINFMTS_H */
--
2.51.2
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-06-22 4:39 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-06-22 4:39 [PATCH 0/2] fs: support $ORIGIN in ELF interpreter paths Farid Zakaria
2026-06-22 4:39 ` Farid Zakaria [this message]
2026-06-22 9:53 ` [PATCH 1/2] " Jori Koolstra
2026-06-23 20:14 ` Kees Cook
2026-06-23 20:35 ` Farid Zakaria
2026-06-22 4:39 ` [PATCH 2/2] selftests/exec: add test suites for $ORIGIN interpreter resolution Farid Zakaria
2026-06-22 10:39 ` [PATCH 0/2] fs: support $ORIGIN in ELF interpreter paths Jan Kara
2026-06-22 17:15 ` Farid Zakaria
2026-06-22 21:08 ` John Ericson
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