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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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IBT/BTI on Linux vs OpenBSD (latte.isnot.coffee)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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From Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD

Over the last 6 months we've worked on adding arm64 BTI & Intel IBT support in the kernels and all userland binaries. We have been fixing all the applications along the way. Many developers were involved. There is an innovative and substantial difference in our approach compared to how Linux is doing it:

On OpenBSD, IBT/BTI enforcement is on by default (meaning mandatory), unless a binary is linked to request opt-out (using -Wl,-z,nobtcfi). After all our fixes, very few application binaries need that, and that count is expected to shrink quickly as we (or upstreams) fix the outstanding issues.
On Linux they are rehashing the same design as their executable-stack mechanism: if a single .o file in a resulting binary isn't marked as IBT/BTI enforcement, the system will (silently) execute the program without enforcement and noone knows this is happening. So for an issue from around 2001, today Linux binaries with executable stack exist and work unsafely. I expect that 20 years from now Linux binaries without IBT/BTI enforcement will also exist and work unsafely..

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