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Comment by boywitharupee | Hacker News Reader

> At runtime, C&P generates executable code by copying the object code and patching the holes with runtime known values.

how would this work on OSs under hardened runtime rules?

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The same as with any other JIT runtime: you do your transformations first, and then you do the `mprotect` call that turns write permissions off and execution permissions on. The only caveats I can think of (`pledge`d not to use `mprotect`, marked most of the address space with `mimmutable`) apply to all other JITs too. The gist is that you operate on a copy of code, and that copy is in a writable page until it's ready to run, so you never violate the W^X rule.

Or you do what V8 does with WebAssembly and just use WX pages because doing it correctly is "too hard" to do without losing performance.

Does that even work in W^X platforms? Context for my response has that assumption, we can't simply throw it out the window, right? I think I read somewhere about making two mappings to the same physical page (one W, one X), are you referring to that? (I'd still need to know how that works as it kinda defeats the protection, the OS should prohibit that, right?)

Oh, for sure what I said wouldn't work on a W^X system. I was just pointing out that one of the most widely used JIT software uses WX pages.

What OSes prohibit that? Linux doesn't (well, I think it can with SeLinux maybe?). OpenBSD might?

The question was about OSes with hardened runtime protections. The most basic of them all is W^X. All BSDs use it, and IIRC Linux is able to enforce it as well. I'd be surprised if it isn't the default in most distros, but I guess it's not impossible. I need to go for lunch so I won't check right now.

or have the right entitlements?

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/en...

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