Bug 81644 - /usr/bin/strip generates garbage from valid ELF executables
Summary: /usr/bin/strip generates garbage from valid ELF executables
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED CURRENTRELEASE
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: binutils
Version: 8.0
Hardware: i386
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jakub Jelinek
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
: 76780 (view as bug list)
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2003-01-12 01:48 UTC by John Reiser
Modified: 2007-04-18 16:49 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2004-10-07 13:40:47 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
ELF executable with empty "linking view" (14.21 KB, application/octet-stream)
2003-01-12 01:50 UTC, John Reiser
no flags Details
result of stripping date.upx.no_shdr (92 bytes, application/octet-stream)
2003-01-12 01:51 UTC, John Reiser
no flags Details
ELF executable with non-empty, compatible, linking view (14.34 KB, application/octet-stream)
2003-01-12 01:54 UTC, John Reiser
no flags Details
result of stripping date.upx.shdr (18.22 KB, application/octet-stream)
2003-01-12 01:56 UTC, John Reiser
no flags Details

Description John Reiser 2003-01-12 01:48:11 UTC
From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.0.0) Gecko/20020529

Description of problem:
After applying /usr/bin/strip, executable ELF files that the kernel used to run,
will not run anymore.  In some cases I see "Illegal instruction", in other cases
I see "bash: <a.elf>: cannot execute binary file".

One broad case that fails is any ELF executable with e_shoff, e_shentsize,
e_shnum, and e_shstrndx all zero.  Such a file has an empty "linking view". 
This is no problem for executing, because execve() uses only the "execution
view" [e_phnum, e_phoff, e_phentsize, e_entry], and totally ignores the "linking
view".  However, if the "linking view" is empty, then the output of 'strip' is
just 92 bytes of headers, with no PT_LOAD at all; the file has been totally
eviscerated.  Trying to run it gets "cannot execute binary file".  Instead,
'strip' should detect an empty "linking view", give a warning message, and leave
the file alone.

Another case that fails is an ELF executable with a second PT_LOAD having
0==.p_memsz, and that is not placed "next" after the first PT_LOAD.  Such a
PT_LOAD is useful for setting the value of brk(0).  'strip' changes p_vaddr to
0, and p_offset to "next", and also sets p_align to 4, even though the original
value was 0x1000.  Typically this destroys the relationship (0xfff & p_offset)
== (0xfff & p_vaddr) which is required by execve().  Trying to run the result
gets "Illegal instruction".  'strip' must preserve PT_LOAD.p_align and
everything that it implies in conjunction with p_offset, p_vaddr, p_paddr.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
binutils-2.13.90.0.2-2

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Using the date.upx.no_shdr and date.upx.shdr ELF executables that are attached
to this bugreport:

1../a.elf   # normal execution
2./usr/bin/strip ./a.elf   # apply 'strip'
3../a.elf   # try to execute the result of stripping
    

Actual Results:  $ ./date.upx.shdr.strip
Illegal instruction
$ ./date.upx.no_shdr.strip
bash: ./date.upx.no_shdr.strip: cannot execute binary file


Expected Results:  $ ./date.upx.shdr
Sat Jan 11 17:09:06 PST 2003
$ ./date.upx.no_shdr
Sat Jan 11 17:09:09 PST 2003


Additional info:

Comment 1 John Reiser 2003-01-12 01:50:21 UTC
Created attachment 89309 [details]
ELF executable with empty "linking view"

/bin/date compressed by UPX (http://upx.sourceforge.net)

Comment 2 John Reiser 2003-01-12 01:51:46 UTC
Created attachment 89310 [details]
result of stripping date.upx.no_shdr

92-bytes of headers, and nothing else; 'strip' gutted the file

Comment 3 John Reiser 2003-01-12 01:54:16 UTC
Created attachment 89311 [details]
ELF executable with non-empty, compatible, linking view

Output from a test version of UPX that supplies a linking view for compressed
output executables.

Comment 4 John Reiser 2003-01-12 01:56:25 UTC
Created attachment 89312 [details]
result of stripping date.upx.shdr

The second PT_LOAD has been scrambled: p_align changed from 0x1000 to 4;
p_offset changed to inhibit mmap().

Comment 5 John Reiser 2003-01-12 03:39:29 UTC
Why would 'strip' be applied to output from UPX?  rpmbuild does it by default
when building a binary package .rpm, and it's not obvious how to turn it off.

Comment 6 Miloslav Trmac 2004-02-05 07:47:01 UTC
*** Bug 76780 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7 Jakub Jelinek 2004-10-07 13:40:47 UTC
binutils-2.15.91.0.2-8 issues warnings:
strip date.upx.no_shdr
BFD: date.upx.no_shdr: warning: Empty loadable segment detected, is this intentional ?

BFD: date.upx.no_shdr: warning: Empty loadable segment detected, is this intentional ?

strip: there are no sections to be copied!
but doesn't change the binary.


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