Bug 2458478 - libunwind is compiled without Shadow Stack protection
Summary: libunwind is compiled without Shadow Stack protection
Keywords:
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: libunwind
Version: 45
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Carlos O'Donell
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 2458434
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-04-14 21:04 UTC by Arjun Shankar
Modified: 2026-08-21 12:57 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Type: ---
Embargoed:


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Description Arjun Shankar 2026-04-14 21:04:01 UTC
libunwind is built without shadow stack support. Therefore, Fedora applications that link against libunwind are lacking protection at runtime.

As far as I can tell, this is due to some assembly files that are not annotated and an upstream fix already exists for the same:
https://github.com/libunwind/libunwind/commit/84607272d8a9bd8b19d2ac720641feab4bc2dc91
https://github.com/libunwind/libunwind/commit/155b3d90f4a0d5fe99f126da0ddbc6c76d0b3e71

Some background for why this bug is being filed and marked with a "High" severity:

We (the glibc team) are planning to enable Shadow Stack protection by default in Fedora 45, and this bug report is a result of early testing. Here is a WIP/draft Fedora System-Wide Change Proposal: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/ShadowStack

There are some notes in the Documentation section of the change proposal on how to identify and fix issues such as these:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/ShadowStack#Documentation
However, in the case of libunwind, backporting the fixes mentioned might suffice.

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Tom "spot" Callaway 2026-04-17 19:44:44 UTC
I'm not sure what's going on with the upstream, I think maybe the 1.8.3 code is different from the "master" branch in key ways, but these changes don't seem to apply (even manually) to that tree. I think we might need to wait for upstream to push another stable release.

Comment 2 Aoife Moloney 2026-08-17 14:33:27 UTC
This bug appears to have been reported against 'rawhide' during the Fedora Linux 45 development cycle.
Changing version to 45.


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