Tor browser crashes in whonix 16 with hardened-malloc

After a clean update to the latest version of Whonix, the Tor browser began to crash out with an error when opening some pages (for example, the Whonix forum) if Hardened-Malloc is installed.

Log tb when launching with --debug

fatal allocator error: invalid uninitialized allocator usage
Redirecting call to abort() to mozalloc_abort

Also logs journalctl, time is deleted

host audit[4587]: ANOM_ABEND auid=1000 uid=1000 gid=1000 ses=1 subj=/**/*-browser/Browser/firefox pid=4587 comm="firefox.real" exe="/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/firefox.real" sig=11 res=1
host kernel: firefox.real[4587]: segfault at 0 ip 00007bfee0c57f77 sp 00007ffe77f21060 error 6 in libxul.so[7bfedd596000+74eb000] likely on CPU 0 (core 0, socket 0)
host audit[4783]: ANOM_ABEND auid=1000 uid=1000 gid=1000 ses=1 subj=/**/*-browser/Browser/firefox pid=4783 comm="firefox.real" exe="/home/user/.tb/tor-browser/Browser/firefox.real" sig=11 res=1
host kernel: firefox.real[4783]: segfault at 0 ip 000072da81a2ff77 sp 00007ffe27399df0 error 6 in libxul.so[72da7e36e000+74eb000] likely on CPU 0 (core 0, socket 0)

There was no similar problem on the 15 version of Whonix!

Similar problems:

Can you somehow solve this problem without deleting the Hardened-Malloc-Light-Eenable package?

Maybe, see:
Hardened Malloc chapter Disable Hardened Malloc per Application in Kicksecure wiki
(Whonix is based on Kicksecure.)

In short, try:

ld-system-preload-disable torbrowser

If that works, Whonix’s torbrowser starter might automate prepending ld-system-preload-disable.

The issue with ld-system-preload-disable is that it disables all preloads in /etc/ld.so.preload configuration file. If the user did not customize the system by editing /etc/ld.so.preload then this isn’t an issue.


  • Whonix doesn’t produce Tor Browser.
  • Whonix doesn’t produce hardened malloc.

Issue was reported upstream:

(But the ticket should not have been closed by the reporter.)

related:

1 Like

This completely solved the problem and the browser no longer crashes. But this solution doesn’t affect security? Disabling hardened malloc for the browser

The browser has its own malloc, so it doesnt need another malloc.

Hardened Malloc chapter Browsers in Kicksecure wiki