Similarly to CFI on virtual and indirect calls, this implementation
tries to use program type information to make the checks as precise
as possible. The basic way that it works is as follows, where C
is the name of the class being defined or the target of a call and
the function type is assumed to be void().
For virtual calls:
- Attach type metadata to the addresses of function pointers in vtables (not the functions themselves) of type void (B::*)() for each B that is a recursive dynamic base class of C, including C itself. This type metadata has an annotation that the type is for virtual calls (to distinguish it from the non-virtual case).
- At the call site, check that the computed address of the function pointer in the vtable has type void (C::*)().
For non-virtual calls:
- Attach type metadata to each non-virtual member function whose address can be taken with a member function pointer. The type of a function in class C of type void() is each of the types void (B::*)() where B is a most-base class of C. A most-base class of C is defined as a recursive base class of C, including C itself, that does not have any bases.
- At the call site, check that the function pointer has one of the types void (B::*)() where B is a most-base class of C.