[tor-bugs] #10281 [Tor Browser]: Investigate usage of alternate memory allocators and memory hardening options

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Tue Nov 18 02:39:43 UTC 2014


#10281: Investigate usage of alternate memory allocators and memory hardening
options
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     Reporter:           |      Owner:
  mikeperry              |     Status:  new
         Type:           |  Milestone:
  enhancement            |    Version:
     Priority:  major    |   Keywords:  gitian, tbb-security-hardening,
    Component:  Tor      |  tbb-firefox-patch
  Browser                |  Parent ID:
   Resolution:           |
Actual Points:           |
       Points:           |
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Comment (by tom):

 As an update.

 Mozilla is working on moving to jemalloc3 which will have a partitioned
 heap.  I believe they are hoping to have this for the next ESR, but it's
 not guaranteed.  More: http://guilherme-pg.com/2014/10/15/Partitioned-
 heap-in-Firefox-pt1.html

 I have a ctmalloc build compiling on Linux 4.5 alpha.  My patches are:
 https://github.com/tomrittervg/tor-browser/commits/tor-
 browser-31.2.0esr-4.5-1-build5-ctmalloc
 https://github.com/tomrittervg/tor-browser-builder/commits/tjr-ctmalloc

 Unfortunately, my implementation of memalign is wrong I need to hack at
 PartitionAlloc to support that, which will be a bit risky and tricky.
 Also, once jemalloc3 comes along, the advantages of using PartitionAlloc
 are much fewer, although some of the work (e.g. random partitioning based
 on callsite) could likely be ported over as defense in depth.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/10281#comment:13>
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