Compiler defenses
Recommended compiler options
The following compiler options enable security features and are included by default when you compile using QNX OS utilities (e.g., q++, qcc):
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -fpic (default), -fPIC | Creates objects for two types of shared libraries (*S.a and *.so). |
| -fPIE (default), -fpie | Creates objects for position independent executables and non-shared static libraries (*.a). |
| -fstack-protector-strong | Inserts a stack cookie onto the stack frame for vulnerable functions, to protect
against stack buffer overflow (refer to Stack protectionin Security features for developers). |
The following option that enables a security feature is not included by default when you compile using QNX OS utilities:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -mbranch-protection | Enables branch protection features for 64-bit ARM (AArch64) systems with CPUs that
support it. QNX SDP 8.0 currently supports one of those branch
protection features: Pointer Authentication. Pointer authentication
can provide protection against, for example, ROP exploits. QNX
recommends that you set this option to pac-ret+leaf. For
more information, refer to the GCC 12.2.0 compiler documentation.
(https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-12.2.0/gcc/AArch64-Options.html#index-mbranch-protection) Specify -U
at startup to check for and set Pointer Authentication support.
For more information, refer to |
The following additional options configure the compiler to output warnings when vulnerable code is detected. Depending on the condition detected, the offending code might be prone to crashing, produce errors or unexpected behavior, or create an opportunity for attack:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -Wall | Enable additional warnings about questionable code construction. Includes -Wformat, which checks calls to printf()- and scanf()-style functions to make sure the arguments match the format strings. |
| -Wcast-align | Warn if the way a pointer is cast causes the required alignment of the target to increased. |
| -Wcast-qual | Warn whenever the way a pointer is cast removes a type qualifier from the target type. |
| -Wconversion | Warn for implicit conversions that may alter a value. |
| -Wduplicated-branches | Warn when an if-else has identical branches. |
| -Wduplicated-cond | Warn about duplicated conditions in an if-else-if chain. |
| -Werror | Treat warnings as errors, failing the build. May not be appropriate in all environments. |
| -Wextra | Enable additional warnings not enabled by -Wall. |
| -Wfloat-equal | Warn if floating-point values are used in equality comparisons. |
| -Wformat=2 | Check calls to printf()- and scanf()-style functions to make sure the arguments match the format strings (-Wformat), plus additional format checks (-Wformat-nonliteral, -Wformat-security, -Wformat-y2k). |
| -Winit-self | Warn about uninitialized variables that are initialized with themselves (requires -Wuninitialized, which is included in -Wall). |
| -Wlogical-op | Warn about suspicious uses of logical operators in expressions. |
| -Wmissing-declarations | Warn if a global function is defined without a previous declaration. |
| -Wmissing-prototypes | Warn if there are missing prototypes. |
| -Wnull-dereference | Warn if the compiler detects paths that trigger errors or undefined behavior because a null pointer is dereferenced. |
| -Wpointer-arith | Warn about anything that depends on the size ofa function type or of void. |
| -Wshadow | Warn whenever a local variable or type declaration shadows another variable, parameter, type, or class member (in C++), or whenever a built-in function is shadowed. |
| -Wsuggest-attribute=format | Warn about function pointers that might be candidates for format attributes. When the format attribute is set, the -Wformat=2 flags look for problems with invocations of the function. |
| -Wswitch-default | Warn whenever a switch statement does not have a default case. |
| -Wswitch-enum | Warn whenever a switch statement has an index of enumerated type and lacks a case for one or more of the named codes of that enumeration. |
| -Wtrampolines | Warn when trampolinesare generated for pointers to nested functions. (A trampoline is a small piece of data or code that is created at runtime on the stack when the address of a nested function is taken, and is used to call the nested function indirectly.) |
| -Wunreachable-code | Warn if the compiler detects code that will never be executed. |
| -Wvla-larger-than=4096 | Warns if the size of a variable length array (VLA) is larger than 4096 bytes (one page of memory). VLA allocations of 4096 bytes or smaller cannot bypass the guard page at the top of the stack. This option requires an optimization level of 1 or higher. |
| -Wwrite-strings | Issue a diagnostic message if const char * is converted to (non-const) char *. |
For detailed information on the warning options, refer to the GNU compiler documentation at: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Warning-Options.html
Recommended preprocessor options
QNX recommends the following CPPFLAGS preprocessor option:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 | Enables fortified system functions with more stringent parameter validation (refer to
Fortified System Functions.) |
Recommended linker options
QNX recommends the following linker (LDFLAGS) options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -pie | Compile an executable as position-independent executable (PIE). Enabled by default with QNX OS compile utilities. |
| -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now | Enable Full RELRO (Relocation Read-Only). Refer to RELROin Security features for developers.) Enabled by default with QNX OS compile utilities. |
| -Wl,-z,defs | Prevents undefined symbols in object files. |
Recommended compiler verification options
You can increase the probability of finding bugs in your code by compiling it with sanitizers enabled. These compiler options are not meant to be enabled in production binaries. Each option targets a different aspect of the code. To fully utilize the power of these options, make sure that your instrumented code is exercised as it would be in production.
QNX OS supports the AddressSanitizer (ASan) and Undefined Behavior Sanitizer (UBSan). Refer to compiler_help for details about ASan and UBSan features.
| Option | Description | Information |
|---|---|---|
| -fsanitize=address | Enables ASan. Memory access instructions are instrumented to detect out-of-bounds and use-after-free bugs. | Instrumentation-Options |
| -fsanitize=undefined | Enables UBSan. Various computations are instrumented to detect undefined behavior at runtime. | Instrumentation-Options |