Re: HEADS-UP: PIE enabled by default on main

On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 03:58:07PM -0500, Ed Maste wrote:
> As of 9a227a2fd642 (main-n245052) base system binaries are now built
> as position-independent executable (PIE) by default, for 64-bit
> architectures. PIE executables are used in conjunction with address
> randomization as a mitigation for certain types of security
> vulnerabilities.
> 
> If you track -CURRENT and normally build WITHOUT_CLEAN you'll need to
> do one initial clean build -- either run `make cleanworld` or set
> WITH_CLEAN=yes.
> 
> No significant user-facing changes are expected from this change, but
> there are some minor ones. For example, `file` will indicate that
> binaries are PIE by reporting something like `ELF 64-bit LSB pie
> executable` rather than `ELF 64-bit LSB executable`. Also, for most
> workloads no notable performance impact is expected.
> 
> For almost all ports this should result in no change. There are a
> small number of ports that use base system /usr/share/mk
> infrastructure and thus inherit the base system default, and some of
> those initially failed to build. Those found during an exp-run in
> PR253275 have been addressed or have patches waiting.
> 
> Please watch out for any new issues after you next update the base
> system and/or ports, and report issues via a Bugzilla PR or in reply
> here.

Thats a huge step forward in terms on security. Thanks for the efforts and
anyone involved.

--Gordon