Hi,
It seems that ASLR with PIE binaries (linux-3.11.0-vanilla on ARM)
seems to create bad memory layout - the programs run out of memory
relatively soon, especially if they also mmap() lot of memory.
I believe the problem is that fs/binfmt_elf.c:load_elf_binary() sets
load_bias to 0 when CONFIG_ARCH_BINFMT_ELF_RANDOMIZE_PIE is set (true
for arm). This causes the following elf_map() to get zero addr (vaddr
is zero also for the main program PT_LOAD), and we get the main binary
mmapped to random position from the regular mmap area. Thus, brk is
also in the same area.
I believe load_elf_binary() should instead manually randomize load_bias
to be within beginning of the user address space (or at least somewhere
close to ELF_ET_DYN_BASE). This would avoid the very restricted heap
size what we get now.
The memory layout I get on my arm board, with PIE executables and
randomize_va_space=2 (boot time default):
b6db2000-b6df4000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 5682 /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5.9
b6df4000-b6df7000 rw-p 0003a000 00:0f 5682 /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5.9
b6df7000-b6e31000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 7364 /usr/lib/libreadline.so.6.2
b6e31000-b6e35000 rw-p 00032000 00:0f 7364 /usr/lib/libreadline.so.6.2
b6e35000-b6e36000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b6e36000-b6eb3000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 3233 /lib/ld-musl-armhf.so.1
b6eb9000-b6eba000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [sigpage]
b6eba000-b6ebc000 rw-p 0007c000 00:0f 3233 /lib/ld-musl-armhf.so.1
b6ebc000-b6ebd000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b6ebd000-b6f60000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 7368 /bin/bash
b6f68000-b6f6c000 rw-p 000a3000 00:0f 7368 /bin/bash
b6f6c000-b6f70000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b7641000-b764e000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [heap]
becd2000-becf3000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [stack]
ffff0000-ffff1000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vectors]
And with randomize_vaspace=0:
2a000000-2a0a3000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 7368 /bin/bash
2a0ab000-2a0af000 rw-p 000a3000 00:0f 7368 /bin/bash
2a0af000-2a0bf000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [heap]
b6ef5000-b6f37000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 5682 /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5.9
b6f37000-b6f3a000 rw-p 0003a000 00:0f 5682 /usr/lib/libncurses.so.5.9
b6f3a000-b6f74000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 7364 /usr/lib/libreadline.so.6.2
b6f74000-b6f78000 rw-p 00032000 00:0f 7364 /usr/lib/libreadline.so.6.2
b6f78000-b6f79000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
b6f79000-b6ff6000 r-xp 00000000 00:0f 3233 /lib/ld-musl-armhf.so.1
b6ffc000-b6ffd000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [sigpage]
b6ffd000-b6fff000 rw-p 0007c000 00:0f 3233 /lib/ld-musl-armhf.so.1
b6fff000-b7000000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0
befdf000-bf000000 rw-p 00000000 00:00 0 [stack]
ffff0000-ffff1000 r-xp 00000000 00:00 0 [vectors]
Any comments, or suggestions?