rust-lang/rust — pull request #16340 by thestinger (2014-08-08 01:35:38+00:00)
Title: enable PIE by default on Linux for full ASLR

Rust already builds all code as position independent, so the linker can
be told to build a position independent executable. Position independent
code does have a significant cost on i686 (not on x86_64 or ARM) but
there's no runtime cost for linking the already position independent
code as a position independent executable.

Address space layout randomization makes exploiting vulnerabilities much
more difficult by providing a statistical defence against an attempt to
find or modify existing code / data. Without ASLR, it's trivial to use a
vulnerability to take over control of the process via return-oriented
programming.

Rust code can be used for return-oriented programming whether it is safe
or unsafe, so even a fully safe application needs to be built as a
position independent executable to defence against vulnerabilities in
unsafe blocks or C libraries.

Sample program:

extern crate libc;

use std::mem;

static mut global: u32 = 5;
static constant: u32 = 5;
fn foo() {}

fn main() {
let local = 5;
println!("stack: {}, global: {}, constant: {}, fn: {}, lib fn: {}",
&local as *const u32,
unsafe { &global as *const u32 },
&constant as *const u32,
unsafe { mem::transmute::<_, *const ()>(foo) },
unsafe { mem::transmute::<_, *const ()>(libc::mprotect) });
}

Before:

stack: 0x3ff15eb9f94, global: 0x6ab488, constant: 0x47db40, fn: 0x4030e0, lib fn: 0x32749547530
stack: 0x3b5d47d80e4, global: 0x6ab488, constant: 0x47db40, fn: 0x4030e0, lib fn: 0x394469a7530
stack: 0x3fe2c4e5564, global: 0x6ab488, constant: 0x47db40, fn: 0x4030e0, lib fn: 0x399734a2530
stack: 0x3e525e0fb24, global: 0x6ab488, constant: 0x47db40, fn: 0x4030e0, lib fn: 0x2f62a810530
stack: 0x3b50fb3eae4, global: 0x6ab488, constant: 0x47db40, fn: 0x4030e0, lib fn: 0x2e590e86530

After:

stack: 0x38cf12c90a4, global: 0x3e2d46b488, constant: 0x3e2d23cf80, fn: 0x3e2d1c2510, lib fn: 0x2617d3b4530
stack: 0x3d733faf474, global: 0x7eb1839488, constant: 0x7eb160af80, fn: 0x7eb1590510, lib fn: 0x32d30c1f530
stack: 0x3bb42212ec4, global: 0x5bbb365488, constant: 0x5bbb136f80, fn: 0x5bbb0bc510, lib fn: 0x3595e6c1530
stack: 0x39f678c1ab4, global: 0x22c4e3c488, constant: 0x22c4c0df80, fn: 0x22c4b93510, lib fn: 0x3835b727530
stack: 0x3afb25bd394, global: 0x493eab2488, constant: 0x493e883f80, fn: 0x493e809510, lib fn: 0x3478d6a7530

This may also be necessary on other platforms, but I can only test on
Linux right now. Note that GDB gained support for debugging position
independent executables in version 7.1 (March 2010).