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https://github.com/rurban/safeclib

safec libc extension with all C11 Annex K functions
https://github.com/rurban/safeclib

bounds-checking c-library

Last synced: 5 days ago
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safec libc extension with all C11 Annex K functions

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README 

        
Safe C Library - README

=======================



[![safeclib](doc/safeclib-banner.png)](https://github.com/rurban/safeclib/issues)



Copying

-------



This project's licensing restrictions are documented in the file 'COPYING'

under the root directory of this release. Basically it's MIT licensed.



Overview

--------



This library implements the secure C11 Annex K[^5] functions on top of most libc

implementations, which are missing from them.



The ISO TR24731 Bounds Checking Interface documents indicate that the key

motivation for the new specification is to help mitigate the ever increasing

security attacks, specifically the buffer overrun.[^1]



The rationale document says _"Buffer overrun attacks continue to be a security

problem. Roughly 10% of vulnerability reports cataloged by CERT from

01/01/2005 to 07/01/2005 involved buffer overflows. Preventing buffer overruns

is the primary, but not the only, motivation for this technical report."_[^2]



The rationale document continues _"that these only mitigate, that is lessen,

security problems. When used properly, these functions decrease the danger

buffer overrun attacks. Source code may remain vulnerable due to other bugs

and security issues. The highest level of security is achieved by building in

layers of security utilizing multiple strategies."_[^2]



The rationale document lists the following key points for TR24731:



- Guard against overflowing a buffer

- Do not produce unterminated strings

- Do not unexpectedly truncate strings

- Provide a library useful to existing code

- Preserve the zero terminated string datatype

- Only require local edits to programs

- Library based solution

- Support compile-time checking

- Make failures obvious

- Zero buffers, null strings

- Runtime-constraint handler mechanism

- Support re-entrant code

- Consistent naming scheme

- Have a uniform pattern for the function parameters and return type

- Deference to existing technology



and the following can be added...



- provide a library of functions with like behavior

- provide a library of functions that promote and increase code safety and

  security

- provide a library of functions that are efficient



The C11 Standard adopted many of these points, and added some secure

`_s` variants in the Annex K.  The Microsoft Windows/MINGW secure API

did the same, but deviated in some functions from the standard.

Besides Windows (with its msvcrt, ucrt, reactos msvcrt and wine msvcrt

variants) only the unused stlport, Android's Bionic, Huawei securec

and Embarcadero implemented this C11 secure Annex K API so far.  They

are still missing from glibc, musl, FreeBSD, darwin and DragonFly

libc, OpenBSD libc, newlib, dietlibc, uClibc, minilibc.



Design Considerations

---------------------



This library implements since 3.0 all functions defined in the

specifications.[^3]  Included in the library are extensions to the specification

to provide a complementary set of functions with like behavior.



This library is meant to be used on top of all the existing libc's

which miss the secure C11 functions. Of course tighter integration

into the system libc would be better, esp. with the printf, scanf and

IO functions. See the seperate [libc-overview](doc/libc-overview.md) document.



Austin Group Review of ISO/IEC WDTR 24731

http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1106.txt



C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011)

http://en.cppreference.com/w/c



CERT C Secure Coding Standard[^4]



Stackoverflow discussion:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/372980/do-you-use-the-tr-24731-safe-functions



DrDobbs review[^6]

http://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/the-new-c-standard-explored/232901670



C17 reconsidered safeclib but looked only at the old incomplete Cisco version,

not our complete and fixed version.

http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1967.htm



* Use of errno



The TR24731 specification says an implementation may set errno for the

functions defined in the technical report, but is not required to.

This library does not set `errno` in most functions, only in

`bsearch_s`, `fscanf_s`, `fwscanf_s`, `gets_s`, `gmtime_s`, `localtime_s`,

`scanf_s`, `sscanf_s`, `swscanf_s`, `strtok_s`, `vfscanf_s`,

`vfwscanf_s`, `vsscanf_s`, `vswscanf_s`, `wcstok_s`, `wscanf_s`.



In most cases the safeclib extended ES* errors do not set `errno`, only

when the underlying insecure system call fails, errno is set.  The

library does use `errno` return codes as required by functional APIs.

Specific Safe C String and Safe C Memory errno codes are defined in

the `safe_errno.h` file.



* Runtime-constraints



Per the spec, the library verifies that the calling program does not violate

the function's runtime-constraints. If a runtime-constraint is violated, the

library calls the currently registered runtime-constraint handler.



Per the spec, multiple runtime-constraint violations in the same call to a

library function result in only one call to the runtime-constraint handler.

The first violation encountered invokes the runtime-constraint handler.



With `--disable-constraint-handler` calling the runtime-constraint handler

can be disabled, saving some memory, but not much run-time performance.



With `--with-default-handler=` you may set the default

constraint handler at compile-time to `abort_handler_s` or

`ignore_handler_s`.



The runtime-constraint handler might not return. If the handler does

return, the library function whose runtime-constraint was violated

returns an indication of failure as given by the function’s return.

With valid dest and dmax values, dest is cleared. With the optional

`--disable-null-slack` only the first value of dest is cleared,

otherwise the whole dest buffer.



`rsize_t`

	The specification defines a new type.  This type, `rsize_t`, is

    conditionally defined in the `safe_lib.h` header file.



`RSIZE_MAX`

	The specification defines the macro `RSIZE_MAX` which expands to a value

	of type `rsize_t`. The specification uses `RSIZE_MAX` for both the string

	functions and the memory functions. This implementation defines two

	macros: `RSIZE_MAX_STR` and `RSIZE_MAX_MEM`.  `RSIZE_MAX_STR` defines the

	range limit for the safe string functions. `RSIZE_MAX_MEM` defines the

	range limit for the safe memory functions.  The point is that string

	limits can and should be different from memory limits.

	There also exist `RSIZE_MAX_WSTR`, `RSIZE_MAX_MEM16`, `RSIZE_MAX_MEM32`.



* Compile-time constraints



With supporting compilers the dmax overflow checks and several more

are performed at compile-time.  Currently only since clang-5 with

`diagnose_if` support. This checks similar to `_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2` if

the `__builtin_object_size` of the dest buffer is the same size as

dmax, and errors if dmax is too big. With the optional

`--enable-warn-dmax` it prints a warning if the sizes are different,

which is esp. practical as compile-time warning. It can be promoted

via the optional `--enable-error-dmax` to be fatal. On unsupported

compilers, the overflow check and optional equality warn-dmax check is

deferred to run-time. This check is only possible with

`__builtin_object_size` and `-O2` when the dest buffer size is known

at compile-time, otherwise only the simplier `dest == NULL`, `dmax == 0`

and `dmax > RSIZE_MAX` checks are performed.



* Header Files



The specification states the various functions would be added to

existing Standard C header files: stdio.h, string.h, etc.  This

implementation separates the memory related functions into the

`safe_mem_lib.h` header, the string related functions into the

`safe_str_lib.h` header, and the rest into the `safe_lib.h`

header. There are also the internal `safe_compile.h`, `safe_config.h`

`safe_lib_errno.h` and `safe_types.h` headers, but they do not need to

be included. You can also include all safec API's with ``.



The make file builds a single library `libsafec-VERSION.a` and `.so`.

Built but not installed are also libmemprims, libsafeccore and libstdunsafe.



It is possible to split the make such that a separate `safe_mem_lib.so` and

`safe_str_lib.so` are built.  It is also possible to integrate the prototypes

into the Standard C header files, but that may require changes to your

development tool chain.



Userspace Library

-----------------



The build system for the userspace library is the well known *GNU build

system*, a.k.a. Autotools. This system is well understood and supported

by many different platforms and distributions which should allow this

library to be built on a wide variety of platforms. See the

[Tested platforms](#tested-platforms) section for details on what

platforms this library was tested on during its development.



* Building



For those familiar with autotools you can probably skip this part. For those

not and want to get right to building the code see below. And, for those that

need additional information see the `INSTALL` file in the same directory.



To build you do the following:



    ./build-aux/autogen.sh

    ./configure

    make



`autogen.sh` only needs to be run if you are building from the git

repository. Optionally, you can do `make check` if you want to run the unit

tests.



On Apple M1-M3 hardware I was told to use this:



    ./configure --disable-hardening CC="clang -arch arm64 -arch x86_64" \

      CXX="clang -arch arm64 -arch x86_64" CPP="clang -E" CXXCPP="clang -E"



This builds safeclib as a fat lib for macOS arm64 + X86-64 using clang.



* Installing



Installation must be preformed by `root`, an `Administrator` on most

systems. The following is used to install the library.



    sudo make install



Safe Linux Kernel Module

------------------------



The build for the kernel module has not been integrated into the autotools

build infrastructure. Consequently, you have to run a different makefile to

build the kernel module.



* Building



.To build do the following:



    ./configure --disable-wchar

    make -f Makefile.kernel



This assumes you are compiling on a Linux box and this makefile supports the

standard kernel build system infrastructure documented in:

`/usr/src/linux-kernel/Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt`



NOTE: If you build the kernel module then wish to build the userspace library

      or vice versa you will need to do a `make clean` otherwise a `make check`

      will fail to build.



* Installing



The kernel module will be found at the root of the source tree called

`slkm.ko`. The file `testslkm.ko` are the unit tests run on the userspace

library but in Linux kernel module form to verify functionality within the

kernel.



Tested Platforms

----------------



The library has been tested on the following systems:



- Linux Fedora core 31 - 41 amd64/i386 glibc 2.28 - 2.40 (all gcc’s + clang’s)

- Mac OS X 10.6-12 w/ Apple developer tools and macports (all gcc’s + clang’s)

- Linux Debian/Ubuntu since Debian 9 amd64/i386 glibc 2.24 - 2.40 (all gcc’s + clang’s)

- Linux centos 7 amd64

- Linux Void amd64 musl-1.1.16

- x86_64-w64-mingw32 native and cross-compiled

- i686-w64-mingw32 native, and cross-compiled and tested under wine

- i386-mingw32 cross-compiled

- cygwin32 gcc (newlib)

- cygwin64 gcc -std=c99 (newlib)

- freebsd 10 - 13 amd64

- linux docker images under qemu:

  i386/debian, x86_64/rhel, arm32v7/debian, aarch64: arm64v8/{debian,centos,rhel,fedora},

  s390x/fedora (the only big endian test I could find), ppc64le/{debian,ubuntu,fedora,centos,rhel}

- User Mode Linux (UML), Linux kernel version v3.5.3 w/ Debian Squeeze rootfs



with most available compilers. See `build-aux/smoke.sh` and the various CI configs.



- https://github.com/rurban/safeclib/actions

- https://travis-ci.org/github/rurban/safeclib/

- https://ci.appveyor.com/project/rurban/safeclib/

- https://cirrus-ci.com/github/rurban/safeclib

- https://cloud.drone.io/rurban/safeclib/



Known Issues

------------



1. If you are building the library from the git repository you will have to

   first run `build-aux/autogen.sh` which runs autoreconf to `install` the

   autotools files and create the configure script.



2. If you use cmake, you'd need to add `-DCMAKE_APPLE_SILICON_PROCESSOR=$(uname -m)`

   for Apple Silicon M1 or M2 processors.



References

----------



[^1]: Programming languages, their environments and system software

      interfaces, Extensions to the C Library, Part I: Bounds-checking

      interfaces, ISO/IEC TR 24731-1.



[^2]: Rationale for TR 24731 Extensions to the C Library Part I:

      Bounds-checking interfaces, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG14 N1225.



[^3]: The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7

      http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/contents.html



[^4]: CERT C Secure Coding Standard

      https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/seccode/CERT+C+Secure+Coding+Standard



[^5]: C11 Standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011) Annex K



[^6]: DrDobbs review http://www.drdobbs.com/cpp/the-new-c-standard-explored/232901670