From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: mm-commits@vger.kernel.org,stable@vger.kernel.org,rostedt@goodmis.org,mhiramat@kernel.org,include@grrlz.net,akpm@linux-foundation.org
Subject: + lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch added to mm-nonmm-unstable branch
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:33:54 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260630193354.870441F000E9@smtp.kernel.org> (raw)
The patch titled
Subject: lib/bootconfig: fix undefined behavior involving NULL pointer arithmetic
has been added to the -mm mm-nonmm-unstable branch. Its filename is
lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch
This patch will shortly appear at
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch
This patch will later appear in the mm-nonmm-unstable branch at
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
Before you just go and hit "reply", please:
a) Consider who else should be cc'ed
b) Prefer to cc a suitable mailing list as well
c) Ideally: find the original patch on the mailing list and do a
reply-to-all to that, adding suitable additional cc's
*** Remember to use Documentation/process/submit-checklist.rst when testing your code ***
The -mm tree is included into linux-next via various
branches at git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
and is updated there most days
------------------------------------------------------
From: Bradley Morgan <include@grrlz.net>
Subject: lib/bootconfig: fix undefined behavior involving NULL pointer arithmetic
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:47:46 +0000
When xbc_snprint_cmdline() is called during the size-probing phase (with
buf = NULL and size = 0), the function computes the end pointer as 'buf +
size' (NULL + 0) and repeatedly advances 'buf' via 'buf += ret'.
Under the C standard, performing pointer arithmetic on a NULL pointer is
undefined behavior. While harmless inside the kernel, this code is also
compiled into the userspace host tool 'tools/bootconfig', where host
compilers with UBSan or FORTIFY_SOURCE enabled abort the build when they
detect NULL pointer arithmetic.
Fix this by guarding the pointer arithmetic so 'buf' is only advanced when
non-NULL, and track the running written length in a separate 'len' counter
for the return value (which cannot be recovered from pointer math when
'buf' is NULL). The rest() helper and snprintf call sites are unchanged.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260630174746.14795-1-include@grrlz.net
Fixes: 51887d03aca1 ("bootconfig: init: Allow admin to use bootconfig for kernel command line")
Assisted-by: GLM:glm-5.2
Signed-off-by: Bradley Morgan <include@grrlz.net>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
---
lib/bootconfig.c | 13 +++++++++----
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
--- a/lib/bootconfig.c~lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic
+++ a/lib/bootconfig.c
@@ -427,8 +427,9 @@ static char xbc_namebuf[XBC_KEYLEN_MAX]
int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf, size_t size, struct xbc_node *root)
{
struct xbc_node *knode, *vnode;
- char *end = buf + size;
+ char *end = buf ? buf + size : NULL;
const char *val, *q;
+ size_t len = 0;
int ret;
xbc_node_for_each_key_value(root, knode, val) {
@@ -442,7 +443,9 @@ int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf
ret = snprintf(buf, rest(buf, end), "%s ", xbc_namebuf);
if (ret < 0)
return ret;
- buf += ret;
+ len += ret;
+ if (buf)
+ buf += ret;
continue;
}
xbc_array_for_each_value(vnode, val) {
@@ -456,11 +459,13 @@ int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf
xbc_namebuf, q, val, q);
if (ret < 0)
return ret;
- buf += ret;
+ len += ret;
+ if (buf)
+ buf += ret;
}
}
- return buf - (end - size);
+ return len;
}
#undef rest
_
Patches currently in -mm which might be from include@grrlz.net are
lib-string-fix-memchr_inv-for-large-ranges.patch
signal-avoid-shared-siginfo-namespace-rewrites.patch
lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch
reply other threads:[~2026-06-30 19:33 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: [no followups] expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20260630193354.870441F000E9@smtp.kernel.org \
--to=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
--cc=include@grrlz.net \
--cc=mhiramat@kernel.org \
--cc=mm-commits@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=rostedt@goodmis.org \
--cc=stable@vger.kernel.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.