Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2018 09:42:45 -0600 From: JD <jd1008@gmail.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Erase memory on shutdown Message-ID: <5B671AF5.7080701@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20180805172503.e2479108.freebsd@edvax.de> References: <acbb3213-e79e-dfde-038f-b1476925cd4a@irk.ru> <20180805172503.e2479108.freebsd@edvax.de>
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On 08/05/2018 09:25 AM, Polytropon wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Aug 2018 22:24:16 +0800, thor wrote:
>> Just one paranoid question: How to cause FreeBSD to zero all RAM during
>> shutdown?
> This would imply that the kernel would finally have to
> overwrite itself. How can control over zeroing memory
> be maintained when the control program itself has been
> overwritten? That would be the result of the "all" in
> your requirement.
>
> Sure, you could add some code to the final shutdown
> routines to zero the RAM, which is possible, but not
> trivial: You need a non-optimized call to memset()
> using a custom function pointer.
>
> static void *(* const volatile memset_ptr)(void *, int, size_t) = memset;
> static void secure_memzero(void *p, size_t len)
> {
> (memset_ptr)(p, 0, len);
> }
>
> void *ram = 0x0; /* RAM start address */
> size_t amount = 17179869184UL; /* 16 GB RAM */
>
> secure_menzero(ram, amount); /* ouch */
>
> If you add something like this to the kernel, and make
> sure your compiler isn't too clever (as to optimize it
> into a NOP), you're going to crash the whole system
> without actually being sure that at least a part of
> the RAM has been zeroed. And even then it might not
> work as intended.
>
> See:
>
> http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2014-09-04-how-to-zero-a-buffer.html
>
> http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2014-09-05-erratum.html
>
> Keep in mind: You're declaring war on intended security
> mechanisms if you try to do this. :-)
>
> However, this is not guaranteed (!) to work, so you
> cannot be safe. And you must do it from the kernel.
> You cannot use (a privileged) program like dd to
> flush /dev/mem and /dev/kmem with /dev/zero output.
>
> Your best bet is to assume that RAM will be zeroed as soon
> as the power-off routine as been completed - no refresh,
> no content. Not perfectly secure, though... :-)
>
> RAM usually isn't zeroed, but marked as "not in use" so
> it can be overwritten. Address randomization makes it
> hard to protect where something will appear in RAM, and
> access to RAM requires certain privileges on a system.
>
>
Just for the heck of it:
allocate from contiguous freemem for the program in question,
load the program,
transfer control to the program which should passed
it starting addy, and size, and total mem size.
Such a program would work, assuming it is written to watch
out for it's addy space, and not overwrite itself.
I do not mean to piss off anyone, just wondering about this
myself.
My question is: currently, if the machine is shut down,
(i.e. powered off), does ram keep it's content? If yes,
how?
for how long?
Is it static ram, or does the battery provide the power
for the ram to remain refreshed?
Cheers,
JD
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