On Saturday 01 December 2001 17:57, Cy Schubert - ITSD Open Systems Group
wrote:
> In message <200112011642.JAA09819lariat.org>, Brett Glass writes:
> > > Would it inconvenience debugging that malloc(3) becomes non
> > > deterministic in its layout ?
> > >
> > > Would the increased uncertainty on program run-time be
> > > good or bad ?
> >
> > It could make reproduction of problems more difficult. So, if
> > it goes in, I'd like a switch to turn it off.... Maybe a
> > sysctl.
> >
> > But there's a more serious philosophical issue here. Isn't
> > shuffling the heap to avoid attacks really a form of
> > "security via obscurity?"
>
> Defence through depth. Every little bit helps. I think we should do
> this.
>
> I suppose we could have a malloc.conf bit to turn this feature off (on
> by default).

Think a new key 'malloc.random' for sysctl could be more useful, protected
with 'kern.securelevel' > 1.

Oleg

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