Posts: security

ldd(1) and untrusted binaries

While diagnosing a non-determinism Bazel issue at work, I had to compare the dynamic libraries used by two builds of the same binary. To do so, I used ldd(1) and I had to refer to its manual page to understand details of the output I had never paid attention to before. What I saw will surprise you: ldd can end up running the binary given to it, thus making it unsafe against untrusted binaries. Read on for the history I could find around this issue and what alternatives you have.

July 1, 2023 · Tags: linux, security
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