[PATCH v4.1 07/10] x86/entry/vdso: include GNU_PROPERTY and GNU_STACK PHDRs

H. Peter Anvin posted 10 patches 1 month ago
There is a newer version of this series
[PATCH v4.1 07/10] x86/entry/vdso: include GNU_PROPERTY and GNU_STACK PHDRs
Posted by H. Peter Anvin 1 month ago
Currently the vdso doesn't include .note.gnu.property or a GNU noexec
stack annotation (the -z noexecstack in the linker script is
ineffective because we specify PHDRs explicitly.)

The motivation is that the dynamic linker currently do not check
these.

However, this is a weak excuse: the vdso*.so are also supposed to be
usable at link libraries, and there is no reason why the dynamic
linker might not want or need to check these in the future, so add
them back in -- it is trivial enough.

Use symbolic constants for the PHDR permission flags.

[ v4: drop unrelated formatting changes ]
[ v4.1: drop one last bogus formatting change (Brian Gerst) ]

Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin (Intel) <hpa@zytor.com>
---
 arch/x86/entry/vdso/common/vdso-layout.lds.S | 36 ++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/entry/vdso/common/vdso-layout.lds.S b/arch/x86/entry/vdso/common/vdso-layout.lds.S
index ec1ac191a057..f050fd723712 100644
--- a/arch/x86/entry/vdso/common/vdso-layout.lds.S
+++ b/arch/x86/entry/vdso/common/vdso-layout.lds.S
@@ -47,18 +47,18 @@ SECTIONS
 		*(.gnu.linkonce.b.*)
 	}						:text
 
-	/*
-	 * Discard .note.gnu.property sections which are unused and have
-	 * different alignment requirement from vDSO note sections.
-	 */
-	/DISCARD/ : {
+	.note.gnu.property : {
 		*(.note.gnu.property)
-	}
-	.note		: { *(.note.*) }		:text	:note
-
-	.eh_frame_hdr	: { *(.eh_frame_hdr) }		:text	:eh_frame_hdr
-	.eh_frame	: { KEEP (*(.eh_frame)) }	:text
+	}					:text :note :gnu_property
+	.note		: {
+		*(.note*)
+	}					:text :note
 
+	.eh_frame_hdr	: { *(.eh_frame_hdr) }	:text :eh_frame_hdr
+	.eh_frame	: {
+		KEEP (*(.eh_frame))
+		*(.eh_frame.*)
+	}					:text
 
 	/*
 	 * Text is well-separated from actual data: there's plenty of
@@ -87,15 +87,23 @@ SECTIONS
  * Very old versions of ld do not recognize this name token; use the constant.
  */
 #define PT_GNU_EH_FRAME	0x6474e550
+#define PT_GNU_STACK	0x6474e551
+#define PT_GNU_PROPERTY	0x6474e553
 
 /*
  * We must supply the ELF program headers explicitly to get just one
  * PT_LOAD segment, and set the flags explicitly to make segments read-only.
  */
+#define PF_R	FLAGS(4)
+#define PF_RW	FLAGS(6)
+#define PF_RX	FLAGS(5)
+
 PHDRS
 {
-	text		PT_LOAD		FLAGS(5) FILEHDR PHDRS; /* PF_R|PF_X */
-	dynamic		PT_DYNAMIC	FLAGS(4);		/* PF_R */
-	note		PT_NOTE		FLAGS(4);		/* PF_R */
-	eh_frame_hdr	PT_GNU_EH_FRAME;
+	text		PT_LOAD		PF_RX FILEHDR PHDRS;
+	dynamic		PT_DYNAMIC	PF_R;
+	note		PT_NOTE		PF_R;
+	eh_frame_hdr	PT_GNU_EH_FRAME PF_R;
+	gnu_stack	PT_GNU_STACK	PF_RW;
+	gnu_property	PT_GNU_PROPERTY	PF_R;
 }
-- 
2.52.0
Re: [PATCH v4.1 07/10] x86/entry/vdso: include GNU_PROPERTY and GNU_STACK PHDRs
Posted by Andrew Cooper 1 month ago
On 06/01/2026 9:18 pm, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Currently the vdso doesn't include .note.gnu.property or a GNU noexec
> stack annotation (the -z noexecstack in the linker script is
> ineffective because we specify PHDRs explicitly.)
>
> The motivation is that the dynamic linker currently do not check
> these.
>
> However, this is a weak excuse: the vdso*.so are also supposed to be
> usable at link libraries, and there is no reason why the dynamic
> linker might not want or need to check these in the future, so add
> them back in -- it is trivial enough.
>
> Use symbolic constants for the PHDR permission flags.
>
> [ v4: drop unrelated formatting changes ]
> [ v4.1: drop one last bogus formatting change (Brian Gerst) ]
>
> Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin (Intel) <hpa@zytor.com>

The v4/v4.1 notes will presumably want dropping before committing?