+ Alistair and Philippe

Hi Alistair and Philippe,
Could you please share your feedback on this new ELF loader from buffer function. Or suggest someone who may help to review this. Also, hw/core/loader.c file has no entry in the MAINTAINERS file. So, should we add the file under Generic loader section only?

Regards,
Utkarsh

On 10/2/26 10:55 AM, [email protected] wrote:
From: Utkarsh Verma <[email protected]>

Add a new public API load_elf_ram_sym_buf() that loads an ELF image
from a caller-supplied memory buffer rather than a file path.
The implementation creates a temporary file via g_file_open_tmp(), then
reuses the existing load_elf32/load_elf64 paths.

To support per-segment inspection by callers (e.g. detecting VoF
firmware segments), extend the internal load_elf{32,64} template
(elf_ops.h.inc) with an optional segment_fn_t callback that is
invoked once for every PT_LOAD segment after its load address is
resolved. Returning false from the callback aborts the load with
ELF_LOAD_FAILED.

AI-used-for: code
Signed-off-by: Utkarsh Verma <[email protected]>
---
Chaneglog:
v2:
- Replaced memfd_create() with g_file_open_tmp()
- Replaced write() call with qemu_write_full()
---
  hw/core/loader.c         | 81 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
  include/hw/core/loader.h | 30 +++++++++++++++
  include/hw/elf_ops.h.inc | 12 +++++-
  3 files changed, 120 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/hw/core/loader.c b/hw/core/loader.c
index 5cbfba0a86..fa04c59ed0 100644
--- a/hw/core/loader.c
+++ b/hw/core/loader.c
@@ -510,12 +510,14 @@ ssize_t load_elf_ram_sym(const char *filename,
          ret = load_elf64(filename, fd, elf_note_fn,
                           translate_fn, translate_opaque, must_swab,
                           pentry, lowaddr, highaddr, pflags, elf_machine,
-                         clear_lsb, data_swab, as, load_rom, sym_cb);
+                         clear_lsb, data_swab, as, load_rom, sym_cb,
+                         NULL, NULL);
      } else {
          ret = load_elf32(filename, fd, elf_note_fn,
                           translate_fn, translate_opaque, must_swab,
                           pentry, lowaddr, highaddr, pflags, elf_machine,
-                         clear_lsb, data_swab, as, load_rom, sym_cb);
+                         clear_lsb, data_swab, as, load_rom, sym_cb,
+                         NULL, NULL);
      }
if (ret > 0) {
@@ -527,6 +529,81 @@ ssize_t load_elf_ram_sym(const char *filename,
      return ret;
  }
+ssize_t load_elf_ram_sym_buf(const uint8_t *buf, size_t buflen,
+                              uint64_t (*elf_note_fn)(void *, void *, bool),
+                              uint64_t (*translate_fn)(void *, uint64_t),
+                              void *translate_opaque, uint64_t *pentry,
+                              uint64_t *lowaddr, uint64_t *highaddr,
+                              uint32_t *pflags, int elf_data_order,
+                              int elf_machine, int clear_lsb, int data_swab,
+                              AddressSpace *as, bool load_rom,
+                              symbol_fn_t sym_cb,
+                              segment_fn_t segment_fn, void *segment_opaque)
+{
+    const int host_data_order = HOST_BIG_ENDIAN ? ELFDATA2MSB : ELFDATA2LSB;
+    int fd, must_swab;
+    ssize_t ret = ELF_LOAD_FAILED;
+    uint8_t e_ident[EI_NIDENT];
+    gchar *tmp_path = NULL;
+    GError *gerr = NULL;
+
+    fd = g_file_open_tmp("qemu-elf-buf-XXXXXX", &tmp_path, &gerr);
+    if (fd < 0) {
+        error_report("load_elf_ram_sym_buf: %s", gerr->message);
+        g_error_free(gerr);
+        return ELF_LOAD_FAILED;
+    }
+    g_unlink(tmp_path);
+    g_free(tmp_path);
+
+    if (qemu_write_full(fd, buf, buflen) != buflen) {
+        error_report("load_elf_ram_sym_buf: write: %s", strerror(errno));
+        goto fail;
+    }
+
+    lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_SET);
+    if (read(fd, e_ident, sizeof(e_ident)) != sizeof(e_ident)) {
+        goto fail;
+    }
+    if (e_ident[0] != ELFMAG0 ||
+        e_ident[1] != ELFMAG1 ||
+        e_ident[2] != ELFMAG2 ||
+        e_ident[3] != ELFMAG3) {
+        ret = ELF_LOAD_NOT_ELF;
+        goto fail;
+    }
+
+    if (elf_data_order != ELFDATANONE && elf_data_order != e_ident[EI_DATA]) {
+        ret = ELF_LOAD_WRONG_ENDIAN;
+        goto fail;
+    }
+
+    must_swab = host_data_order != e_ident[EI_DATA];
+
+    lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_SET);
+    if (e_ident[EI_CLASS] == ELFCLASS64) {
+        ret = load_elf64("(buffer)", fd, elf_note_fn,
+                         translate_fn, translate_opaque, must_swab,
+                         pentry, lowaddr, highaddr, pflags, elf_machine,
+                         clear_lsb, data_swab, as, load_rom, sym_cb,
+                         segment_fn, segment_opaque);
+    } else {
+        ret = load_elf32("(buffer)", fd, elf_note_fn,
+                         translate_fn, translate_opaque, must_swab,
+                         pentry, lowaddr, highaddr, pflags, elf_machine,
+                         clear_lsb, data_swab, as, load_rom, sym_cb,
+                         segment_fn, segment_opaque);
+    }
+
+    if (ret > 0) {
+        debuginfo_report_elf("(buffer)", fd, 0);
+    }
+
+ fail:
+    close(fd);
+    return ret;
+}
+
  static void bswap_uboot_header(uboot_image_header_t *hdr)
  {
  #if !HOST_BIG_ENDIAN
diff --git a/include/hw/core/loader.h b/include/hw/core/loader.h
index d9431e8a8d..b67b2ca013 100644
--- a/include/hw/core/loader.h
+++ b/include/hw/core/loader.h
@@ -156,6 +156,36 @@ ssize_t load_elf_ram_sym(const char *filename,
                           int clear_lsb, int data_swab,
                           AddressSpace *as, bool load_rom, symbol_fn_t sym_cb);
+/*
+ * segment_fn_t:
+ * Per-PT_LOAD segment callback for load_elf_ram_sym_buf().
+ */
+typedef bool (*segment_fn_t)(void *opaque,
+                             uint64_t paddr, uint64_t vaddr,
+                             uint64_t filesz, uint64_t memsz);
+
+/*
+ * load_elf_ram_sym_buf:
+ * @buf: pointer to an in-memory ELF image
+ * @buflen: size of @buf in bytes
+ * @segment_fn: optional per-PT_LOAD callback
+ * @segment_opaque: opaque data passed to @segment_fn
+ *
+ * Identical to load_elf_ram_sym() but loads from a caller-supplied
+ * memory buffer instead of a file.  All other parameters have the
+ * same meaning as load_elf_ram_sym().
+ */
+ssize_t load_elf_ram_sym_buf(const uint8_t *buf, size_t buflen,
+                             uint64_t (*elf_note_fn)(void *, void *, bool),
+                             uint64_t (*translate_fn)(void *, uint64_t),
+                             void *translate_opaque, uint64_t *pentry,
+                             uint64_t *lowaddr, uint64_t *highaddr,
+                             uint32_t *pflags, int elf_data_order,
+                             int elf_machine, int clear_lsb, int data_swab,
+                             AddressSpace *as, bool load_rom,
+                             symbol_fn_t sym_cb,
+                             segment_fn_t segment_fn, void *segment_opaque);
+
  /** load_elf_as:
   * Same as load_elf_ram_sym(), but always loads the elf as ROM
   */
diff --git a/include/hw/elf_ops.h.inc b/include/hw/elf_ops.h.inc
index 044e72de2a..a2c9b52bf9 100644
--- a/include/hw/elf_ops.h.inc
+++ b/include/hw/elf_ops.h.inc
@@ -321,7 +321,9 @@ static ssize_t glue(load_elf, SZ)(const char *name, int fd,
                                    uint32_t *pflags, int elf_machine,
                                    int clear_lsb, int data_swab,
                                    AddressSpace *as, bool load_rom,
-                                  symbol_fn_t sym_cb)
+                                  symbol_fn_t sym_cb,
+                                  segment_fn_t segment_fn,
+                                  void *segment_opaque)
  {
      struct elfhdr ehdr;
      struct elf_phdr *phdr = NULL, *ph;
@@ -504,6 +506,14 @@ static ssize_t glue(load_elf, SZ)(const char *name, int fd,
                  addr = ph->p_paddr;
              }
+ if (segment_fn) {
+                if (!segment_fn(segment_opaque, addr, ph->p_vaddr,
+                                file_size, mem_size)) {
+                    ret = ELF_LOAD_FAILED;
+                    goto fail;
+                }
+            }
+
              if (data_swab) {
                  elf_word j;
                  for (j = 0; j < file_size; j += (1 << data_swab)) {


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