> there should be a way of turning these off systematically. the > advantage of the current hardened gcc specs is that one can switch > between them using gcc-config. if these are forced on for the default > profile then there will be no easy way to systematically turn them off.
No - there won't be an easy way for systematically turning off SSP and PIE in 17.0 profiles [1,2]. The hardened toolchain with its different gcc profiles came from a time where SSP and PIE were relatively new security features and a certain amount of fine-grained control was needed. Further, at that time we were talking about external patches against gcc. Nowadays everything is upstreamed and (almost) no patches to gcc for hardened profiles are applied any more. Given the fact that all major linux distributions are following the path of improved default hardening features (see for example [1]) and that we have been using ssp/pie in hardened profiles for years now the purpose of fine-grained control over ssp/pie is also highly questionable. The consensus at the moment is that PIE and SSP (as well as stricter linker flags) will soon be standard (or, actually *are* already standard) compilation options. A per-package override (if absoluetely needed) is fine - and, in fact, already in place everywhere where needed. Thus, we should go with the time and simply force these well tested hardening features on platforms that support it. Best, Matthias [1] for amd64/x86 and well supported profiles [2] there is always the possibility to override forced use flags [1] https://wiki.debian.org/Hardening/PIEByDefaultTransition
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
