Subject: [PATCH] readelf: Update dynamic tag processing and validate section info
Project / Subsystem
binutils / readelf
Date
2026-07-01
Proposer
"H.J. Lu" <hjl.tools@gmail.com>
Source type
public_inbox
Consensus
Proposed
Sentiment
10/10
Technical tradeoffs
- • Improves robustness against malformed files by ignoring invalid data, potentially hiding underlying issues that might be relevant for debugging.
- • Adds warnings for previously unhandled out-of-range values, providing clearer diagnostics.
All attributes
- project
- binutils
- subsystem
- readelf
- patch_id
- —
- discussion_id
- CAMe9rOrB-Y5nRfgKAqjEjNZ3rG7Jxq-fnu7QgFUnzY-TpxxgEA@mail.gmail.com
- source_type
- public_inbox
- title
- Subject: [PATCH] readelf: Update dynamic tag processing and validate section info
- headline
- readelf: Update dynamic tag processing and validate section info
- tldr
- Improves readelf's handling of dynamic tags and section information, preventing crashes and providing better warnings for invalid data.
- proposer
- "H.J. Lu" <hjl.tools@gmail.com>
- consensus
- Proposed
- outcome
- proposed
- sentiment_score
- 10
- technical_tradeoffs
-
- • Improves robustness against malformed files by ignoring invalid data, potentially hiding underlying issues that might be relevant for debugging.
- • Adds warnings for previously unhandled out-of-range values, providing clearer diagnostics.
- series_id
- —
- series_role
- standalone
- series_parts
- []
- tags
-
- • elf
- • readelf
- • security
- • bugfix
- • core-dump
- bugzilla_url
- —
- date
- 2026-07-01T00:00:00.000Z
Subject: [PATCH] readelf: Update dynamic tag processing and validate section info
This patch enhances readelf’s robustness by updating its dynamic tag processing and introducing validation for section information. It now correctly counts DT_RELR relocations using dynamic tags when section headers are not present, and crucially, it ignores section sh_offset and sh_size values if they exceed the file size. This prevents segfaults and introduces warnings for out-of-range section data, improving diagnostic capabilities.