Expanding the list of "Hardened Packages"

[John Reiser]

On 04/11/2013 08:19 AM, Miloslav Trmač wrote:
> (I'll call "mutating ASLR" a setup where the addresses change frequently,
> and "static ASLR" a setup where the addresses change only sometimes
> but differ between systems.)
> 
> * Servers that accept outside connections definitely should have mutating ASLR 
> (attackers can make millions of connection attempts and outguess static ASLR).
> So PIE and prelink unused or ineffective (== current policy).

What does it mean "So PIE and prelink unused or ineffective"?
That phrase lacks a verb.
Also missing is the reasoning of how the conclusion "... unused or ineffective"
is connected to the antecedent "attackers can ... outguess static ASLR".
Is it cause-and-effect, or is it a counterexample, or what?


A process that is invoked by xinetd in response to a particular packet,
and which terminates after serving only one logical connection, and whose
executable is built using "gcc -pie -FPIE, and not pre-inked,
then operates with short-lived, high-frequency, mutating ASLR.
That's one case of a "server" process invoked by xinetd.

That same executable can be prelinked twice per hour, or once per hour,
or once per day depending on historical frequency, real-time monitoring
of logs, etc.  Then it operates under mutating ASLR with medium or
adapting frequency.  That's another case of "server".

If "server" is a whole system which lasts at least one day (tens or hundreds
of thousands of processes, or more) then "all executables -pie and -fPIE;
and no prelink" is a highest-frequency mutating ASLR.  It also has the
highest direct cost for performing all that randomized relocation.

What's the point?

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