Re: arch_align_stack() seems useless

From: Franck Bui-Huu
Date: Tue Aug 28 2007 - 09:17:41 EST


Hello Arjan,

Arjan van de Ven wrote:
> arch_align_stack aligns, on x86, within a 2 page range (this is for
> cache coloring).

OK, but for elf case this seems useless since the top of the stack is
already randomized.

It seems that the randomization stuff (top of the stack + stack
pointer inside a page) belongs to the elf binary format whereas it
could have been part of exec.c. Are there any reasons ?

> The other thing you missed is that arch_align_stack()
> is called in 2 locations, binfmt_elf.c is the primary location for
> inside-the-page randomization.
>

Well not really because for mips case, we have:

$ git grep ELF_PLATFORM include/asm-mips
include/asm-mips/elf.h:#define ELF_PLATFORM (NULL)

So on mips, the stack pointer won't get the inside the page
randomization. Is that correct ?

If so, I'm wondering why this randomization must depend on that string
to be defined. I must admit that I'm not sure how it's used. I guess
it's used by ld.so and it could be set to "mips" for now...

thanks
Franck
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/