> I have used openssl in an application for the first time, so this might be > my code, but there is strong evidence that it is not. I linked Electric > Fence in my application and when I use the sha512 digest, I get a Bus Error, > when I use the md5 digest, I do not. > > I am running on a sparc Ultra-2 with Solaris 8, and using OpenSSL 0.9.8. > > The backtrace from the core dump is: > > #0 0xff0d95d8 in SHA512_Init () from /usr/local/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 > #1 0xff134798 in EVP_DigestInit_ex () from > /usr/local/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 > #2 0xff0dd724 in HMAC_Init_ex () from /usr/local/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 > #3 0x0001113c in main (argc=1, argv=0xffbef7a4) at hmac.c:33 > > I have attached the source of the test file that gets this error.
Well, one can not actually claim that it's OpenSSL bug either. As we all know, Electric Fence replaces malloc(3) and the trouble is that its implementation formally violates ISO specification. To be specific "... pointer returned [by malloc] ... is suitably aligned so that it may be assigned to a pointer to any type of object" clause. The thing is that EFence malloc is asked to allocate amount of bytes not divisible by 8 and returns pointer not aligned at 64-bit boundary, while SHA512_Init requires aligned one. EFence has its reasons to return non-aligned pointer, but SHA512_Init is allowed by specification to not expect one. In other words above crash does not constitute OpenSSL bug. One can compensate for this in OpenSSL code by padding certain structures, but the thing is that *formally* it's not required and therefore you should not expect SHA512 to work under EFence on platforms not capable to tolerate misaligned reference to memory. Platforms like SPARC, Alpha, PA-RISC2, IA64, ... A. ______________________________________________________________________ OpenSSL Project http://www.openssl.org Development Mailing List openssl-dev@openssl.org Automated List Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED]
