Re: [PATCH] [powerpc] Fix Text randomization

[Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>]

On Fri, 2014-11-14 at 14:42 +0530, Vineeth Vijayan wrote:
> Now there is no way to disable TEXT randomization on a PPC32/PPC64
> machine. Text randomization happens even in the case of "echo 0 >
> /proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space"
> 
> This happens due to the incorrect definition of ELF_ET_DYN_BASE
> at arch/powerpc/include/asm/elf.h
> 
> The function randomize_et_dyn is redundant and is removed.

The patch looks OK, but for the change log I was thinking something more like
this:


powerpc: Use generic PIE randomization

Back in 2009 we merged 501cb16d3cfd "Randomise PIEs", which added support for
randomizing PIE (Position Independent Executable) binaries.

That commit added randomize_et_dyn(), which correctly randomized the addresses,
but failed to honor PF_RANDOMIZE. That means it was not possible to disable PIE
randomization via the personality flag, or /proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space.

Since then there has been generic support for PIE randomization added to
binfmt_elf.c, selectable via ARCH_BINFMT_ELF_RANDOMIZE_PIE.

Enabling that allows us to drop randomize_et_dyn(), which means we start
honoring PF_RANDOMIZE correctly.

It also causes a fairly major change to how we layout PIE binaries.

Currently we will place the binary at 512MB-520MB for 32 bit binaries, or
512MB-1.5GB for 64 bit binaries, eg:

    $ cat /proc/$$/maps
    4e550000-4e580000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 129813       /bin/dash
    4e580000-4e590000 rw-p 00020000 08:02 129813       /bin/dash
    10014110000-10014140000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0      [heap]
    3fffaa3f0000-3fffaa5a0000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 921  /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libc-2.19.so
    3fffaa5a0000-3fffaa5b0000 rw-p 001a0000 08:02 921  /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libc-2.19.so
    3fffaa5c0000-3fffaa5d0000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 
    3fffaa5d0000-3fffaa5f0000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0    [vdso]
    3fffaa5f0000-3fffaa620000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1246 /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/ld-2.19.so
    3fffaa620000-3fffaa630000 rw-p 00020000 08:02 1246 /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/ld-2.19.so
    3ffffc340000-3ffffc370000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0    [stack]

With this commit applied we don't do any special randomisation for the binary,
and instead rely on mmap randomisation. This means the binary ends up at high
addresses, eg:

    $ cat /proc/$$/maps
    3fff99820000-3fff999d0000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 921    /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libc-2.19.so
    3fff999d0000-3fff999e0000 rw-p 001a0000 08:02 921    /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/libc-2.19.so
    3fff999f0000-3fff99a00000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 
    3fff99a00000-3fff99a20000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0      [vdso]
    3fff99a20000-3fff99a50000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 1246   /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/ld-2.19.so
    3fff99a50000-3fff99a60000 rw-p 00020000 08:02 1246   /lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/ld-2.19.so
    3fff99a60000-3fff99a90000 r-xp 00000000 08:02 129813 /bin/dash
    3fff99a90000-3fff99aa0000 rw-p 00020000 08:02 129813 /bin/dash
    3fffc3de0000-3fffc3e10000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0      [stack]
    3fffc55e0000-3fffc5610000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0      [heap]

Although this should be OK, it's possible it might break badly written
binaries that make assumptions about the address space layout.


cheers