Compiling with ASLR(-pie) causes the executable to be seen as shared library

Question

I am trying to add security flags to an executable but it seem that when compiling with -pie (as linker flags), the file tool sees it as a shared library, although I can run it without problems. Is this normal? Can this be fixed?

I am using add_link_options(-pie) (so all CMake executables can benefit)

untitled3: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (GNU/Linux), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/l, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, BuildID[sha1]=f33e240db8bf52c2566b2cad14b4be67fdb6b35a, with debug_info, not stripped

LE: it seems it was a bug in file tool, fixed here:

This is normal. Old versions of `file` can't tell the difference between a position-independent executable and a shared library. To fix this upgrade to `file` version `5.36` or above. — S.S. Anne, Jan 10 '20 at 01:01

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 10 '20 at 23:45

2

Executables compiled with -pie are shared objects. file now has special support to deal with these. The answers to this question go into this in more detail.

edited Jan 10 '20 at 23:45

S.S. Anne

15,171
8
38
76

answered Jan 10 '20 at 00:57

saagarjha

2,221
1
20
37

Vote to close the question as a duplicate instead of linking to another question. – S.S. Anne Jan 10 '20 at 12:29
Will do in the future. Thanks! – saagarjha Jan 10 '20 at 23:44

Compiling with ASLR(-pie) causes the executable to be seen as shared library

1 Answers1