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Low 41 Bitcoin

feat(core): introduce elf loader

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by cepetr

57/100 · Thin
feat(core): introduce elf loader

[no changelog]
✓ Descriptive subject✓ Names a concrete action or component✓ Uses a recognizable type or scope! No meaningful explanatory body
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit adds a new ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) loader to the Trezor firmware. It is marked as a feature implementation and explicitly carries a 'DO NOT SHIP THIS FILE' warning for production builds. The code parses ELF files, loads code and data segments, applies relocation fixups, and sets up memory protection for applets. Because this is new, complex parsing code that handles attacker-influenced binary data and modifies memory, it is security-relevant, but the commit itself does not describe a vulnerability and the production guard suggests it is not intended for release as-is.

Recommended action

Treat this as a work-in-progress feature that must not reach production firmware. If reviewing, verify that all ELF parsing bounds checks are complete, that relocation targets cannot escape the applet's own segments, that the MPU layout does not over-grant privileges (especially coreapp code/TLS access), and that the production #error guard is preserved. A full security audit of the loader should be completed before any production guard is removed.

Security signals we found

01

New parser for attacker-supplied binary format (ELF) added to firmware

02

Memory protection layout grants loaded applet access to coreapp code and TLS regions

03

Relocation fixups write to addresses derived from ELF metadata without full symbol-table validation

04

Production build explicitly blocked by #error directive, indicating code is not ready for shipping

05

Unix emulator path writes untrusted binary to /tmp and loads with dlopen (emulator-only)

06

No changelog entry suggests work-in-progress feature

Risk score

Why this scored 41/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 12/30
Exploitability 8/25
Stealth signal 5/15
Affected reach 10/15
Confidence 4/10
Evidence quality 2/5
Human-validated context

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