Bug 1370275 - When disassembling a full RELRO binary, symbols refer to a lookup table
Summary: When disassembling a full RELRO binary, symbols refer to a lookup table
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED EOL
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: binutils
Version: 26
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
medium
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Nick Clifton
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2016-08-25 19:15 UTC by Steve Grubb
Modified: 2023-09-14 03:30 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2018-05-29 12:11:17 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Steve Grubb 2016-08-25 19:15:59 UTC
Description of problem:
When disassembling a binary compiled with full RELRO flags using objdump, the symbols refer to tables rather than the actual symbol. This makes analysis hard. Given the following program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
        printf("Hello World\n");
        return 0;
}

When compiled with CFLAGS=-g -DPIE -fPIE, you get:
0000000000400526 <main>:
  400526:	55                   	push   %rbp
  400527:	48 89 e5             	mov    %rsp,%rbp
  40052a:	bf d0 05 40 00       	mov    $0x4005d0,%edi
  40052f:	e8 cc fe ff ff       	callq  400400 <puts@plt>  *** OK ***
  400534:	b8 00 00 00 00       	mov    $0x0,%eax
  400539:	5d                   	pop    %rbp
  40053a:	c3                   	retq   
  40053b:	0f 1f 44 00 00       	nopl   0x0(%rax,%rax,1)


Now when compiled with CFLAGS=-g -DPIE -fPIE -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now
0000000000400516 <main>:
  400516:	55                   	push   %rbp
  400517:	48 89 e5             	mov    %rsp,%rbp
  40051a:	48 8d 3d 9f 00 00 00 	lea    0x9f(%rip),%rdi        # 4005c0 <__dso_handle+0x8>
  400521:	e8 da fe ff ff       	callq  400400 <_init+0x30>  *** Huh? ***
  400526:	b8 00 00 00 00       	mov    $0x0,%eax
  40052b:	5d                   	pop    %rbp
  40052c:	c3                   	retq   
  40052d:	0f 1f 00             	nopl   (%rax)

The second one refers to init+0x30 which is not user friendly.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
binutils-2.26.1-1.fc24.x86_64

Comment 1 Nick Clifton 2016-08-30 12:18:41 UTC
Just a quick note - the problem here is that objdump does not apply dynamic relocations before running the disassembly.  This could be done, it just needs more code being added to objdump.

Comment 2 Nick Clifton 2016-11-08 17:28:19 UTC
binutils-2.27-11.fc26.rpm contains a patch to improve objdump's output in this sceanrio.  It will now display:

0000000000400516 <main>:
  400516:	55                   	push   %rbp
  400517:	48 89 e5             	mov    %rsp,%rbp
  40051a:	48 8d 3d 9f 00 00 00 	lea    0x9f(%rip),%rdi        # 4005c0 <__dso_handle+0x8>
  400521:	e8 da fe ff ff       	callq  400400 <.plt.got>
  400526:	b8 00 00 00 00       	mov    $0x0,%eax
  40052b:	5d                   	pop    %rbp
  40052c:	c3                   	retq   
  40052d:	0f 1f 00             	nopl   (%rax)

for the disassembly of main, showing that the CALLQ instruction goes into the .plt.got section.  In addition the contents of the .plt.got section are now disassembled as:

0000000000400400 <.plt.got>:
  400400:	ff 25 e2 0b 20 00    	jmpq   *0x200be2(%rip)        # 600fe8 <puts.5>
  400406:	66 90                	xchg   %ax,%ax
  400408:	ff 25 e2 0b 20 00    	jmpq   *0x200be2(%rip)        # 600ff0 <__libc_start_main.5>
  40040e:	66 90                	xchg   %ax,%ax
  400410:	ff 25 e2 0b 20 00    	jmpq   *0x200be2(%rip)        # 600ff8 <__gmon_start__>
  400416:	66 90                	xchg   %ax,%ax

So that the jump to the PUTS function can be seen.  I hope that this is sufficient.

Cheers
  Nick

Comment 3 Steve Grubb 2016-11-08 17:41:16 UTC
Thanks for helping to make this more usable. But any chance it could finish the resolving to point out the ultimate function being called?

 400521:	e8 da fe ff ff       	callq  400400 <puts>

Just asking. I'm hoping the resolution is more complete because of scripts that are looking for certain information.

Comment 4 Nick Clifton 2016-11-09 11:25:39 UTC
Hi Steve,

> But any chance it could finish
> the resolving to point out the ultimate function being called?
> 
>  400521:	e8 da fe ff ff       	callq  400400 <puts>

I probably could do it, but I am loath to do so because it is inaccurate.  We are dealing with assembler here, which is very low-level stuff.  There is no such symbol as puts (in this executable), so claiming that the call instruction references it is wrong.  Adding some extra annotation to the output, such as:

  400521:  e8 da fe ff ff    callq  400400 <.plt.got> [slot 0: puts]

might be possible, but it seems fragile to me, and quite likely to be a source of future bugs.  I would much rather keep things simple if I can...

Is it hard to modify the scripts you are using to follow the link into the PLT section manually ?

Cheers
  Nick

Comment 5 Fedora End Of Life 2017-02-28 10:09:30 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora 26 development cycle.
Changing version to '26'.

Comment 6 Fedora End Of Life 2018-05-03 08:28:38 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 26 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
and issuing updates for Fedora 26. It is Fedora's policy to close all
bug reports from releases that are no longer maintained. At that time
this bug will be closed as EOL if it remains open with a Fedora  'version'
of '26'.

Package Maintainer: If you wish for this bug to remain open because you
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Comment 7 Fedora End Of Life 2018-05-29 12:11:17 UTC
Fedora 26 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2018-05-29. Fedora 26
is no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any
further security or bug fix updates. As a result we are closing this bug.

If you can reproduce this bug against a currently maintained version of
Fedora please feel free to reopen this bug against that version. If you
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bug.

Thank you for reporting this bug and we are sorry it could not be fixed.

Comment 8 Red Hat Bugzilla 2023-09-14 03:30:09 UTC
The needinfo request[s] on this closed bug have been removed as they have been unresolved for 1000 days


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