I was playing with mprotect and VM flags when I noticed two curious behaviours.
1) This C program modifies data segments's flags: #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/mman.h> /* Values shown by /proc/<pid>/maps */ #define START 0x08049000 #define END 0x0804a000 int target; int main(void) { printf("ADDRESS: %p\n", &target); target = 1; mprotect((void *)START, END - START, PROT_WRITE); printf("%d\n", target); return 0; } After the mprotect call, data segment's flags are 08049000-0804a000 -w-p 00000000 03:06 297330 /home/dktrkranz/vmflags_read Shouldn't printf generate a segfault trying to read a variabile located in a write-only area? 2) This C program tries to execute a shellcode: /* This shellcode calls write and exit. It's harmless ;) */ char shellcode[] = "\x31\xc0\x31\xdb\x31\xd2\x53\x68\x7a\x0a\x00\x00\x68\x4b\x72" "\x61\x6e\x68\x44\x6b\x74\x72\x89\xe1\xb2\x0a\xb0\x04\xcd\x80" "\x31\xc0\x31\xdb\xb0\x01\xcd\x80"; int main(void) { void(*sc)(void); sc = (void *)&shellcode; sc(); return 0; } These are data segment's flags: 08049000-0804a000 rw-p 00000000 03:06 297330 /home/dktrkranz/vmflags_sc Shellcode lies in this segment. It is executed even if VM_EXEC isn't set. I think execution shouldn't be permitted if only VM_READ or VM_WRITE flags are set. Buffer overflows/format string based exploits wouldn't be so popular if we implemented this feaure. Please let me know your opinion. Thank you, Luca - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/