Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH v6 08/24] xsplice: Add helper elf routines

["Jan Beulich" <JBeulich@xxxxxxxx>]

>>> On 07.04.16 at 18:19, <Ian.Jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk writes ("[PATCH v6 08/24] xsplice: Add helper elf 
> routines"):
>> From: Ross Lagerwall <ross.lagerwall@xxxxxxxxxx>
>> 
>> Add Elf routines and data structures in preparation for loading an
>> xSplice payload.
>> 
>> We make an assumption that the max number of sections an ELF payload
>> can have is 64. We can in future make this be dependent on the
>> names of the sections and verifying against a list, but for right now
>> this suffices.
>> 
>> Also we a whole lot of checks to make sure that the ELF payload
>> file is not corrupted nor that the offsets point past the file.
> 
> This is good, but: ideally I would like to avoid conducting a detailed
> security review of this code.
> 
> My understanding of this is that the purpose of this machinery is to
> supply binary runtime patches to the hypervisor.  So I think someone
> who can inject malicious xsplice payloads can already control the
> host.  Is that right ?
> 
> If so then bugs in this loader cannot be any security impact.

Well, in a way this depends on re-visiting the position we take
related to heavy disaggregation, which I mean to put up as a
subject on the hackathon.

Jan


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