[sysvinit-devel] [PATCH 0/2] shutdown: Fix segfaults due to symbol collisions

[Richard Tollerton]

We have encountered some puzzling segfaults when calling the `shutdown` utility,
which are ultimately caused by the specific *name* of a function in `shutdown`,
*not* by any of its code. Specifically, if:

1. A third-party shared library is loaded along with the `shutdown` utility 
(e.g.
   a NSS module [1]); and
2. The shared library uses the shutdown(2) syscall;

then the shared library's invocation of shutdown(2) calls shutdown() in
shutdown.c, instead of going to the kernel.

If you're lucky, this merely results in the `wall` shutdown message being
displayed twice. If you're unlucky then `shutdown` segfaults before actually
performing the shutdown.

The root problem is because the `shutdown` binary is exporting the "shutdown"
symbol. Note that it's not *explicitly* exporting it; gcc goes out of its way to
export it. Because you'd only call a function shutdown() if you were overriding
shutdown(2), right? :F

This can be easily demonstrated by a test program:

##
## test1.c: doesn't export anything
##
$ cat > test1.c <<EOF
int not_shutdown() { return 10; }
int main(void) { return not_shutdown(); }
EOF
$ cc -o test1 test1.c
$ nm -D test1 | grep -v ' [wWuU] '
$

##
## test2.c: exports "shutdown", even though it only differs by a renamed
## function from test1.c
##
$ cat > test2.c <<EOF
int shutdown() { return 10; }
int main(void) { return shutdown(); }
EOF
$ cc -o test2 test2.c
$ nm -D test2 | grep -v ' [wWuU] '
00000000004004e0 T shutdown
$

The fix is obvious enough -- rename the shutdown() function to something else. I
also do the same for warn(), which is also exported, presumably because it
collides with warn(3). I looked through all the other binaries and these appear
to be the only two functions being inadvertently exported.

[1] http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Name-Service-Switch.html

Richard Tollerton (2):
  shutdown.c: Avoid symbol collision with shutdown()
  shutdown.c: Avoid symbol collision with warn()

 src/shutdown.c | 14 +++++++-------
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

-- 
1.8.4.2