September 01, 2017 posted by Kamil Rytarowski

/proc/#/ctl

This month I've finally finished upstreaming NetBSD support in ASan and UBsan. For better coverage of the sanitizers and on user request I've ported libFuzzer and SafeStack. There are mutual dependencies between the compiler-rt features. NetBSD after sorting out msan and tsan shall get all the remaining ones enabled. This is open topic after finishing LLDB. I have also prepared better ground for the coming work on ptrace(2) enhancements with the removal of the filesystem tracing ().

LLVM

The majority of the work has been done in the LLVM projects.

The developed features are not production ready and they will need productization in the future. There are still issues with paths mismatch ("netbsd" vs "netbsd8.99" vs "netbsd8.99.1") when looking for NetBSD specific support for the compiler-rt features. There is also a need for integration with pkgsrc, as not everything behaves sanely (conflicts with wrappers). The tools are also restricted to be built with the Clang compiler, as GCC support is currently broken. I also noted that the sanitizers behave wrongly in the standalone build (out of the LLVM sources).

I expect to sort out the mentioned problems after finishing LLDB.

LLVM JIT

There is ongoing discussion with the LLVM community about new JIT API that will be compatible with NetBSD PaX MPROTECT. There have been developed and introduced cleanups in the code (like better error handling templates) in order to prepare a draft of new API.

ASAN

All local code for ASan has been merged upstream. This includes NetBSD patches in LLVM, Clang and compiler-rt.

All but two (one on i386 version and the other on amd64) tests (check-asan) pass.

UBSAN

Similarly to ASan, UBsan has been fully upstreamed. All tests (check-ubsan) pass.

SafeStack

SafeStack is a software security hardening technique that creates two stacks: one for data that needs to be kept safe, such as return addresses and function pointers; and an unsafe stack for everything else.

With PaX ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) and PaX MPROTECT (mprotect(2) restrictions) SafeStack is an excellent candidate for inclusion in pkgsrc.

Core programs could be hardened as well, but the shortcoming of SafeStack for basesystem utilities is pulling in additional dependencies like libpthread on every executable.

Using SafeStack adds marginal overhead.

libFuzzer

Citing the project page, LibFuzzer is an in-process, coverage-guided, evolutionary fuzzing engine.

LibFuzzer is linked with the library under test, and feeds fuzzed inputs to the library via a specific fuzzing entry point (aka 'target function'); the fuzzer then tracks which areas of the code are reached, and generates mutations on the corpus of input data in order to maximize the code coverage. The code coverage information for libFuzzer is provided by LLVM's SanitizerCoverage instrumentation.

This functionality still requires more sanitizers to get aboard and is now of restricted functionality.

TSAN

Part of the TSan code has been upstreamed. However, a functional port isn't finished yet.

The current issues are: proper process memory map handling and NetBSD specific setjmp(3)-like functions support.

LSAN

I was also working on LSan. This sanitizer already builds and appears to be quite completed, however there is work needed for the implementation of StopTheWorld() function to self-introspect the process and threads. I'm researching a new kernel API for this purpose, but it might wait till the end of LLDB porting.

MSAN

So far I have not been working on the MSan specific bits. The majority of the code has been upstreamed for this sanitizer in the common sanitizer framework, the proper handling of the NetBSD specific process map is still to be done.

PROFILE

The profile library is used to collect coverage information. It already passes most of the tests, however it's not turned on, as upstream requested additional time to be spent on the issues and it's not a priority right now.

NetBSD kernel

I've removed the filesystem tracing feature.

This is a legacy interface from 4.4BSD, and it was introduced to overcome shortcomings of ptrace(2) at that time, which are no longer relevant (performance). Today /proc/#/ctl offers a narrow subset of ptrace(2) commands and is not applicable for modern applications use beyond simplistic tracing scenarios.

This removal simplified kernel internals. Users are still able to use all the other /proc files.

This change doesn't affect other procfs files and Linux compat features within mount_procfs(8). /proc/#/ctl isn't available on Linux.

Plan for the next milestone

This month I will not work on a new development and I will focus on relax and taking part in EuroBSDCon in Paris. I will speak about the LLDB porting to NetBSD.

Long-term goals are finishing the basis sanitizers (msan, tsan) and switching back to LLDB porting. The sanitizers will be used to develop and debug the LLVM debugger. There is also integration with sanitizers in LLDB.

This work was sponsored by The NetBSD Foundation.

The NetBSD Foundation is a non-profit organization and welcomes any donations to help us continue funding projects and services to the open-source community. Please consider visiting the following URL, and chip in what you can:

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