From: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
To: Richard Weinberger <richard@nod.at>
Cc: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>,
Anton Ivanov <anton.ivanov@cambridgegreys.com>,
Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-um@lists.infradead.org,
linux-hardening@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] um: Replace strncpy() with strnlen()+memcpy_and_pad() in strncpy_chunk_from_user()
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2026 10:17:14 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260323171713.work.839-kees@kernel.org> (raw)
Replace the deprecated[1] strncpy() with strnlen() on the source
followed by memcpy_and_pad().
This function is a chunk callback for UML's strncpy_from_user()
implementation, called by buffer_op() to process userspace memory one
page at a time. The source is a kernel-mapped userspace address that
is not guaranteed to be NUL-terminated; "len" bounds how many bytes
to read from it.
By measuring the source string length first with strnlen(), we avoid
reading past the NUL terminator in the source. memcpy_and_pad() then
copies the string content and zero-fills the remainder of the chunk,
preserving the original strncpy() behavior exactly: copy up to the
first NUL, then pad with zeros to the full length.
strtomem_pad() would be the idiomatic helper for this strnlen() +
memcpy_and_pad() pattern, but it requires a compile-time-determinable
destination size (via ARRAY_SIZE()). Here the destination is a char *
into a caller-provided buffer and the chunk length is a runtime value,
so the explicit two-step is necessary.
No behavioral change: the same bytes are written to the destination
(string content followed by zero padding), the pointer advances by
the same amount, and the NUL-found return condition is unchanged.
Link: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/90 [1]
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
---
arch/um/kernel/skas/uaccess.c | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/um/kernel/skas/uaccess.c b/arch/um/kernel/skas/uaccess.c
index 198269e384c4..caef1deef795 100644
--- a/arch/um/kernel/skas/uaccess.c
+++ b/arch/um/kernel/skas/uaccess.c
@@ -170,8 +170,8 @@ static int strncpy_chunk_from_user(unsigned long from, int len, void *arg)
char **to_ptr = arg, *to = *to_ptr;
int n;
- strncpy(to, (void *) from, len);
- n = strnlen(to, len);
+ n = strnlen((void *) from, len);
+ memcpy_and_pad(to, len, (void *) from, n, 0);
*to_ptr += n;
if (n < len)
--
2.34.1
reply other threads:[~2026-03-23 17:17 UTC|newest]
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