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path: root/include/linux/auxvec.h
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2009-01-08ELF: implement AT_RANDOM for glibc PRNG seedingKees Cook
While discussing[1] the need for glibc to have access to random bytes during program load, it seems that an earlier attempt to implement AT_RANDOM got stalled. This implements a random 16 byte string, available to every ELF program via a new auxv AT_RANDOM vector. [1] http://sourceware.org/ml/libc-alpha/2008-10/msg00006.html Ulrich said: glibc needs right after startup a bit of random data for internal protections (stack canary etc). What is now in upstream glibc is that we always unconditionally open /dev/urandom, read some data, and use it. For every process startup. That's slow. ... The solution is to provide a limited amount of random data to the starting process in the aux vector. I suggested 16 bytes and this is what the patch implements. If we need only 16 bytes or less we use the data directly. If we need more we'll use the 16 bytes to see a PRNG. This avoids the costly /dev/urandom use and it allows the kernel to use the most adequate source of random data for this purpose. It might not be the same pool as that for /dev/urandom. Concerns were expressed about the depletion of the randomness pool. But this patch doesn't make the situation worse, it doesn't deplete entropy more than happens now. Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees.cook@canonical.com> Cc: Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com> Cc: Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org> Cc: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2008-07-25ELF loader support for auxvec base platform stringNathan Lynch
Some IBM POWER-based platforms have the ability to run in a mode which mostly appears to the OS as a different processor from the actual hardware. For example, a Power6 system may appear to be a Power5+, which makes the AT_PLATFORM value "power5+". This means that programs are restricted to the ISA supported by Power5+; Power6-specific instructions are treated as illegal. However, some applications (virtual machines, optimized libraries) can benefit from knowledge of the underlying CPU model. A new aux vector entry, AT_BASE_PLATFORM, will denote the actual hardware. For example, on a Power6 system in Power5+ compatibility mode, AT_PLATFORM will be "power5+" and AT_BASE_PLATFORM will be "power6". The idea is that AT_PLATFORM indicates the instruction set supported, while AT_BASE_PLATFORM indicates the underlying microarchitecture. If the architecture has defined ELF_BASE_PLATFORM, copy that value to the user stack in the same manner as ELF_PLATFORM. Signed-off-by: Nathan Lynch <ntl@pobox.com> Acked-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>
2008-07-22execve filename: document and export via auxiliary vectorJohn Reiser
The Linux kernel puts the filename argument of execve() into the new address space. Many developers are surprised to learn this. Those who know and could use it, object "But it's not documented." Those who want to use it dislike the expression (char *)(1+ strlen(env[-1+ n_env]) + env[-1+ n_env]) because it requires locating the last original environment variable, and assumes that the filename follows the characters. This patch documents the insertion of the filename, and makes it easier to find by adding a new tag AT_EXECFN in the ElfXX_auxv_t; see <elf.h>. In many cases readlink("/proc/self/exe",) gives the same answer. But if all the original pages get unmapped, then the kernel erases the symlink for /proc/self/exe. This can happen when a program decompressor does a good job of cleaning up after uncompressing directly to memory, so that the address space of the target program looks the same as if compression had never happened. One example is http://upx.sourceforge.net . One notable use of the underlying concept (what path containED the executable) is glibc expanding $ORIGIN in DT_RUNPATH. In practice for the near term, it may be a good idea for user-mode code to use both /proc/self/exe and AT_EXECFN as fall-back methods for each other. /proc/self/exe can fail due to unmapping, AT_EXECFN can fail because it won't be present on non-new systems. The auxvec or {AT_EXECFN}.d_val also can get overwritten, although in nearly all cases this would be the result of a bug. The runtime cost is one NEW_AUX_ENT using two words of stack space. The underlying value is maintained already as bprm->exec; setup_arg_pages() in fs/exec.c slides it for stack_shift, etc. Signed-off-by: John Reiser <jreiser@BitWagon.com> Cc: Roland McGrath <roland@redhat.com> Cc: Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com> Cc: Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-10-17increase AT_VECTOR_SIZE to terminate saved_auxv properlyOlaf Hering
include/asm-powerpc/elf.h has 6 entries in ARCH_DLINFO. fs/binfmt_elf.c has 14 unconditional NEW_AUX_ENT entries and 2 conditional NEW_AUX_ENT entries. So in the worst case, saved_auxv does not get an AT_NULL entry at the end. The saved_auxv array must be terminated with an AT_NULL entry. Make the size of mm_struct->saved_auxv arch dependend, based on the number of ARCH_DLINFO entries. Signed-off-by: Olaf Hering <olh@suse.de> Cc: Roland McGrath <roland@redhat.com> Cc: Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com> Cc: Richard Henderson <rth@twiddle.net> Cc: Ivan Kokshaysky <ink@jurassic.park.msu.ru> Cc: "Luck, Tony" <tony.luck@intel.com> Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org> Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org> Cc: Paul Mundt <lethal@linux-sh.org> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2006-01-13[PATCH] Increase AT_VECTOR_SIZEPaul Mackerras
On PowerPC, we want to be able to provide an AT_PLATFORM aux table entry to userspace, so that glibc can choose optimized libraries for the processor we're running on. Unfortunately that would be the 21st aux table entry on powerpc, meaning that the aux table including the terminating null entry would overflow the mm->saved_auxv[] array, leading to userland programs segfaulting. This increases the size of the mm->saved_auxv array to be large enough to accommodate an AT_PLATFORM entry on powerpc. Signed-off-by: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2005-09-07[PATCH] auxiliary vector cleanupsH. J. Lu
The size of auxiliary vector is fixed at 42 in linux/sched.h. But it isn't very obvious when looking at linux/elf.h. This patch adds AT_VECTOR_SIZE so that we can change it if necessary when a new vector is added. Because of include file ordering problems, doing this necessitated the extraction of the AT_* symbols into a standalone header file. Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>