From owner-freebsd-security Tue Apr 21 23:16:53 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id XAA25248 for freebsd-security-outgoing; Tue, 21 Apr 1998 23:16:53 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from ns.mt.sri.com (sri-gw.MT.net [206.127.105.141]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id GAA25171 for ; Wed, 22 Apr 1998 06:16:45 GMT (envelope-from nate@mt.sri.com) Received: from mt.sri.com (rocky.mt.sri.com [206.127.76.100]) by ns.mt.sri.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id AAA12442; Wed, 22 Apr 1998 00:16:44 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from nate@rocky.mt.sri.com) Received: by mt.sri.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id AAA02036; Wed, 22 Apr 1998 00:16:38 -0600 Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 00:16:38 -0600 Message-Id: <199804220616.AAA02036@mt.sri.com> From: Nate Williams MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: Peter Wemm Cc: freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Static vs. dynamic linking (was Re: Using MD5 insted of DES ...) In-Reply-To: <199804220504.NAA01624@spinner.netplex.com.au> References: <199804211814.OAA23669@brain.zeus.leitch.com> <199804220504.NAA01624@spinner.netplex.com.au> X-Mailer: VM 6.29 under 19.15 XEmacs Lucid Sender: owner-freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk Peter Wemm writes: > FWIW, I'm a little amazed at the paranoia about dynamic linking. I have > *never* *ever* "lost" or damaged ld.so except through stupidity (made a > mistake with a source change and caused an undefined symbol). I have never > lost or damaged libc.so except through stupidity (again, generally through > normal development accidents with undefined symbols). I have thwacked the snot out of my system by replacing libc.so to the point that nothing except the static stuff in /bin|sbin worked. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does the only recourse was to use the static stuff to recover, which I was able to do. With dynamic programs, instead of having a single point of failure, you have *many*. ld.so, libc.so, potentially /var/run/ld.hints, etc... There are too many variables plus the performance advantages of having a static /bin/sh to even argue about the *minute* advantage of having a completely dynamic system, vs. the hybrid we have now. Nate To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe security" in the body of the message