Re: readelf: Save and dump the original section header values
Project / Subsystem
binutils / readelf
Date
2026-07-12
Proposer
Alan Modra <amodra@gmail.com>
Source type
public_inbox
Consensus
Proposed
Sentiment
—/10
Technical tradeoffs
- • Simplifies error messages, potentially losing some specific detail about malloc failures for small allocations.
- • Introduces 'xmalloc' for safer memory allocation, which might have slightly different behavior than raw 'malloc' in error cases.
All attributes
- project
- binutils
- subsystem
- readelf
- patch_id
- —
- discussion_id
- alNf0yuNAobHT3dV@squeak.grove.modra.org
- source_type
- public_inbox
- title
- Re: readelf: Save and dump the original section header values
- headline
- readelf: Save and dump the original section header values
- tldr
- Improves error handling and fixes a buffer overflow in binutils' readelf tool.
- proposer
- Alan Modra <amodra@gmail.com>
- consensus
- Proposed
- outcome
- proposed
- sentiment_score
- —
- technical_tradeoffs
-
- • Simplifies error messages, potentially losing some specific detail about malloc failures for small allocations.
- • Introduces 'xmalloc' for safer memory allocation, which might have slightly different behavior than raw 'malloc' in error cases.
- series_id
- —
- series_role
- standalone
- series_parts
- []
- tags
-
- • binutils
- • readelf
- • elf
- • bugfix
- • error-handling
- bugzilla_url
- —
- date
- 2026-07-12T00:00:00.000Z
Re: readelf: Save and dump the original section header values
This patch refactors parts of binutils’ readelf.c to improve error reporting for malloc failures and fix a potential buffer overflow in orig_section_headers. It simplifies warning messages, removes unused parameters, and adjusts memory allocation and validation logic, particularly when probing ELF headers or handling relr dynamic tags.