Does using strip remove the RTTI information on a binary?

Question

When I compile a C++ binary using gcc with option to keep symbol information and when I run the following command it lists the typeinfo for the classes

objdump -Ct ExecName | grep typeinfo

When I compile with the stripped option -s and run the following it says no symbols.

But I am worried the RTTI information is being held in some other place.

I would prefer all the class names to be not shown in the binary. I would like a confirmation whether stripping symbols actually ends up removing the RTTI information.

In this presentation at Blackhat they show how to use RTTI to learn about the binary. http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-dc-07/Sabanal_Yason/Paper/bh-dc-07-Sabanal_Yason-WP.pdf

I know you could turn off RTTI by using -fno-rtti when compiling but I want this to be the last resort.

Answer 1

But I am worried the RTTI information is being held in some other place.

It is.

When I ask the compiler to perform dynamic_cast, then it must honour the contract of dynamic_cast, and that requires RTTI. The only way to escape this is to have a compiler setting which would give an error or UB when you attempt to use dynamic_cast in this fashion. The compiler is obliged to provide RTTI by the language, unless you explicitly tell it otherwise.