Re: aarch64 binaries using nolibc segfault before reaching the entry point

From: Thomas Weißschuh
Date: Wed Sep 13 2023 - 17:23:45 EST


On 2023-09-13 22:58:38+0200, Willy Tarreau wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 13, 2023 at 10:19:00PM +0200, Thomas Weißschuh wrote:
> > > All on aarch64 running fedora37 + upstream kernel. Any hints on what could
> > > be borken here or how to actually fix it?
> >
> > I reduced it to the following reproducer:
> >
> > $ cat test.c
> > int foo; /* It works when deleting this variable */
> >
> > void __attribute__((weak, noreturn, optimize("Os", "omit-frame-pointer"))) _start(void)
> > {
> > __asm__ volatile (
> > "mov x8, 93\n" /* NR_exit == 93 */
> > "svc #0\n"
> > );
> > __builtin_unreachable();
> > }
> >
> > $ aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc -Os -static -fno-stack-protector -Wall -nostdlib test.c
> > $ ./a.out
> > Segmentation fault
> >
> > Also when running under gdb the error message is:
> >
> > During startup program terminated with signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
> >
> > So it seems the error already happens during loading.
> >
> > Could be a compiler or kernel bug?
>
> I tried here with gcc-11.4.0 native on an ubuntu-22.04 and using a
> cross gcc-9.5 executed on another box and couldn't reproduce the issue
> at all. It could be that the compiler inserts whatever, did someone
> try to disassemble de resulting program to see what it looks like ?
> Maybe we're even dealing with issues related to random stack alignment
> that causes issues past a function call due to some garbage being placed
> at the wrong place in the stack. Also, dmesg should generally report
> what (and where) the segv happened. Similarly, gdb with "info reg"
> and "disassemble $pc" should report some info.

Im using:

aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc (GCC) 13.2.0

It's reproducible reliably.

No output in dmesg, binary works in qemu-user.
There should be no function calls at all, or?
GDB also doesn't show any registers, it seems to fail before anything is
executed.

>
> In my case, I just have this:
>
> $ objdump -d a.out
>
> a.out: file format elf64-littleaarch64
>
>
> Disassembly of section .text:
>
> 0000000000400144 <_start>:
> 400144: d2800ba8 mov x8, #0x5d // #93
> 400148: d4000001 svc #0x0

Looks absolutely identical for me.

>
> The kernel is a 6.2:
>
> $ uname -a
> Linux ampere 6.2.0-26-generic #26~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Jul 13 20:49:15 UTC 2 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Linux fedora-4gb-fsn1-1 6.4.11-200.fc38.aarch64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Aug 16 18:01:59 UTC 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

(Just a default ARM VM on Hetzner with Fedora 38)