static-binary-zoo

A set of Dockerfiles to statically cross-compile various "hacker tools" using musl-cross-make and abusing Docker. This is a work in progress, and more tools and libraries will be added over time.

Usage

Run make MUSL_TARGET=some_target_tuple to compile everything. Tested targets so far:

• aarch64-linux-musl
• mips-linux-muslsf
• mipsel-linux-muslsf
• x86_64-linux-musl

But others are very likely to work. Building everything currently needs about 2GB of disk per target and it helps to have a big machine with NVMe storage and plenty of RAM. A complete build for a single architecture currently takes about 15 minutes on a Ryzen 4750U, or a bit less on an Apple M1.

You can build individual binaries by specifying the recipe name as an argument to make. Dependency resolution will be handled automatically.

To validate that all your binaries came out right, run make check. This will list any binaries in the output directory which don't seem to have been statically linked.

More tools and documentation will be added over time.

Supported tools

These are the tools that build cleanly without too many caveats and are generally usable.

• busybox-1.33.1
• curl-7.79.1
• dropbear-2020.81 (dropbear, dropbearclient and dropbearkey)
• fuzzotron-09b7046 (fuzzotronandreplay`)
• loggedfs-0.9
• ngrep-2a9603b
• nmap-7.90 (some extra functionality is missing as it requires additional data files)
• openssh-8.8p1 (ssh, scp, sftp and ssh-keygen)
• openssl-0.9.8zh (insecure, not for general use)
• openssl-1.1.1k
• parted-3.4
• socat-1.7.4.1
• strace-6.1
• stunnel-5.64
• tcpdump-4.99.1

Experimental tools

These are tools which have significant caveats.

• git-2.33.0 (git-... binary needs to be renamed to just git to work, generally this isn't very useful because even when compiled statically it's not very standalone due to all the scripts and helpers required)
• nsjail-3.1 (currently only builds on 64 bit ARM, 32 and 64 bit x86 due to using Google's static protoc compiler binaries)

Supported libraries

These libraries are built automatically as required by the above tools.

• musl-cross-make-0.9.9
• expat-2.4.1
• fuse-2.9.9
• gettext-0.21 (not currently required for anything)
• kafel-20200831 (as part of nsjail-3.1)
• libcurl-7.79.1 (as part of curl-7.79.1)
• libnl-3.2.25
• libpcap-1.10.1
• libssl-0.9.8zh (as part of openssl-0.9.8zh, don't use this, just here for compatibility)
• libssl-1.1.1k (as part of openssl-1.1.1k)
• libuuid-1.46.5 (as part of e2fsprogs-1.46.5)
• libxml2-2.9.12
• ncurses-6.2
• pcre-8.45
• protobuf-3.21.1 (C++ support only)
• readline-8.1
• zlib-1.2.11

Rationale

There are numerous projects and approaches for building static tool binaries, but this one is mine. Sometimes you just find yourself on a little-endian softfloat MIPS box and you really need a specific tool!

Some goals of the project:

• Re-use dependencies between recipes where possible.
• Ensure that only the necessary modifications are made to packages to get them to build and be useful.
• Up-to-date versions.
• Try and make things builds relatively quickly and efficiently (e.g. auto-detect number of cores, skip unhelpful build stages etc)
• Build tools with useful features enabled (e.g. socat has OpenSSL)

And yet to be added:

• Update notification feature (this may involve switching package sources to come from Debian).

Contributors

These people have contributed code and fixes:

• Adam Baxter (@voltagex)
• Michael Fincham (https://finch.am/)

Feedback? Questions?

E-mail michael@hotplate.co.nz. I'd love to receive your improvements. No, I don't really know how to use Docker.