HEADS-UP: PIE enabled by default on main

[Gordon Bergling]

On Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 08:57:55PM +0200, Konstantin Belousov wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 07:34:03PM +0100, Gordon Bergling wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 03:58:07PM -0500, Ed Maste wrote:
> > > As of 9a227a2fd642 (main-n245052) base system binaries are now built
> > > as position-independent executable (PIE) by default, for 64-bit
> > > architectures. PIE executables are used in conjunction with address
> > > randomization as a mitigation for certain types of security
> > > vulnerabilities.
> > > 
> > > If you track -CURRENT and normally build WITHOUT_CLEAN you'll need to
> > > do one initial clean build -- either run `make cleanworld` or set
> > > WITH_CLEAN=yes.
> > > 
> > > No significant user-facing changes are expected from this change, but
> > > there are some minor ones. For example, `file` will indicate that
> > > binaries are PIE by reporting something like `ELF 64-bit LSB pie
> > > executable` rather than `ELF 64-bit LSB executable`. Also, for most
> > > workloads no notable performance impact is expected.
> > > 
> > > For almost all ports this should result in no change. There are a
> > > small number of ports that use base system /usr/share/mk
> > > infrastructure and thus inherit the base system default, and some of
> > > those initially failed to build. Those found during an exp-run in
> > > PR253275 have been addressed or have patches waiting.
> > > 
> > > Please watch out for any new issues after you next update the base
> > > system and/or ports, and report issues via a Bugzilla PR or in reply
> > > here.
> > 
> > Thats a huge step forward in terms on security.
> Can you explain why?
> 
> Thanks.

I can try. Enabling PIE for every 64bit architecture is in that matter a step
forward in security as it enables ASLR for further adoption.

Thank You, again.

--Gordon

> > Thanks for the efforts and anyone involved.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 618 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/attachments/20210226/22f3a88f/attachment.sig>