Oracle® Solaris 11.2 Linkers and Libraries Guide

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Updated: July 2014
 
 

Audit Interface Limitations

Limitations exist within the rtld-audit implementation. Take care to understand these limitation when designing an auditing library.

Exercising Application Code

An audit library receives information as objects are added to a process. At the time the audit library receives such information, the object being monitored might not be ready to execute. For example, an auditor can receive an la_objopen() call for a loaded object. However, the object must load its own dependencies and be relocated before any code within the object can be exercised. An audit library might want to inspect the loaded object by obtaining a handle using dlopen(3C). This handle can then be used to search for interfaces using dlsym(3C). However, interfaces obtained in this manner should not be called unless it is known that the initialization of the destination object has completed.

Use of la_pltexit()

There are some limitations to the use of the la_pltexit() family. These limitations stem from the need to insert an extra stack frame between the caller and callee to provide a la_pltexit() return value. This requirement is not a problem when calling just the la_pltenter() routines, as. In this case, any intervening stack can be cleaned up prior to transferring control to the destination function.

Because of these limitations, la_pltexit() should be considered an experimental interface. When in doubt, avoid the use of the la_pltexit() routines.

Functions That Directly Inspect the Stack

A small number of functions exist that directly inspect the stack or make assumptions of its state. Some examples of these functions are the setjmp(3C) family, vfork(2), and any function that returns a structure, not a pointer to a structure. These functions are compromised by the extra stack that is created to support la_pltexit().

The runtime linker cannot detect functions of this type, and thus the audit library creator is responsible for disabling la_pltexit() for such routines.