[PATCH v3 29/29] x86: Use INT3 instead of NOP for linker fill bytes

Kees Cook keescook at chromium.org
Wed Oct 30 08:13:51 AEDT 2019


Instead of using 0x90 (NOP) to fill bytes between functions, which makes
it easier to sloppily target functions in function pointer overwrite
attacks, fill with 0xCC (INT3) to force a trap. Also drop the space
between "=" and the value to better match the binutils documentation
https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs/ld/Output-Section-Fill.html#Output-Section-Fill

Example "objdump -d" before:

...
ffffffff810001e0 <start_cpu0>:
ffffffff810001e0:       48 8b 25 e1 b1 51 01    mov 0x151b1e1(%rip),%rsp        # ffffffff8251b3c8 <initial_stack>
ffffffff810001e7:       e9 d5 fe ff ff          jmpq   ffffffff810000c1 <secondary_startup_64+0x91>
ffffffff810001ec:       90                      nop
ffffffff810001ed:       90                      nop
ffffffff810001ee:       90                      nop
ffffffff810001ef:       90                      nop

ffffffff810001f0 <__startup_64>:
...

After:

...
ffffffff810001e0 <start_cpu0>:
ffffffff810001e0:       48 8b 25 41 79 53 01    mov 0x1537941(%rip),%rsp        # ffffffff82537b28 <initial_stack>
ffffffff810001e7:       e9 d5 fe ff ff          jmpq   ffffffff810000c1 <secondary_startup_64+0x91>
ffffffff810001ec:       cc                      int3
ffffffff810001ed:       cc                      int3
ffffffff810001ee:       cc                      int3
ffffffff810001ef:       cc                      int3

ffffffff810001f0 <__startup_64>:
...

Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook at chromium.org>
---
 arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S b/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
index b06d6e1188de..3a1a819da137 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ SECTIONS
 		*(.text.__x86.indirect_thunk)
 		__indirect_thunk_end = .;
 #endif
-	} :text = 0x9090
+	} :text =0xcccc
 
 	/* End of text section, which should occupy whole number of pages */
 	_etext = .;
-- 
2.17.1



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