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Date:      Tue, 01 Sep 1998 19:21:07 -0700
From:      John Polstra <jdp@polstra.com>
To:        Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Cc:        reilly@zeta.org.au, current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: ELF binaries size 
Message-ID:  <199809020221.TAA17213@austin.polstra.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 02 Sep 1998 12:14:40 %2B1000." <199809020214.MAA20550@godzilla.zeta.org.au> 

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> I think it implies that elf wastes a full page of memory (the space
> between the ':'s above) most of the time (unless the ':'s are on a
> page boundary), while aout only wastes an average of half a page
> (the space between the text ':' and the end of the page).

But a.out has a repeat of the same situation at the juncture of data
and bss, and ELF does not.

> >> Is this a security problem?
> >
> >I don't think so.  Do you?
>
> Maybe if text is supposed to be unreadable.  The system would have
> to clear the part of the first data page before the ':' to prevent
> leakage.  FreeBSD doesn't seem to do this.

It's moot on the i386, if I remember correctly.  Doesn't execute
permission imply read permission on the i386?

Also, how does it enhance security to prevent a program from reading
its own text segment?  If a program doesn't want to read its text
segment then it should simply ... not read it. :-)

John

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