ELF binaries containing pointers to .dtors

[aviv.by () gmail com]

Hello,

I'm messing around with the vortex wargame on pull the plug (pulltheplug.org/wargames/vortex) and I needed to overwrite 
.dtors in one of the levels.

I found out that in every ELF (gcc compiled) I found in .data a pointer to the end of the .dtors section.
Why is it there? Simply to make .dtors overwriting easier? :)

Is there a real need for this?

Thanks,
Aviv.