linux-doc.vger.kernel.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
To: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: "Gustavo A. R. Silva" <gustavo@embeddedor.com>,
	linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] docs: deprecated.rst: Add %p to the list
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2020 11:13:28 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <202003041103.A5842AD@keescook> (raw)

Once in a while %p usage comes up, and I've needed to have a reference
to point people to. Add %p details to deprecated.rst.

Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
---
 Documentation/process/deprecated.rst | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/deprecated.rst b/Documentation/process/deprecated.rst
index f9f196d3a69b..a4db119f4e09 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/deprecated.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/deprecated.rst
@@ -109,6 +109,23 @@ the given limit of bytes to copy. This is inefficient and can lead to
 linear read overflows if a source string is not NUL-terminated. The
 safe replacement is :c:func:`strscpy`.
 
+%p format specifier
+-------------------
+Using %p in format strings leads to a huge number of address exposures.
+Instead of leaving these to be exploitable, "%p" should not be used in
+the kernel. If used currently, it is a hashed value, rendering it
+unusable for addressing. Paraphrasing Linus's current `guideance <https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CA+55aFwQEd_d40g4mUCSsVRZzrFPUJt74vc6PPpb675hYNXcKw@mail.gmail.com/>`_:
+
+- Just use %p and get the hashed value.
+- If the hashed value is pointless, ask yourself whether the pointer
+  itself is important. Maybe it should be removed entirely?
+- As a last option, if you really think the true pointer value is
+  important, why is some system state or user privilege level considered
+  "special"? If it is well justified (in comments and commit log), maybe
+  you can use %px along with making sure you have sensible permissions.
+
+A system-wide toggle will `not be accepted <https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CA+55aFwieC1-nAs+NFq9RTwaR8ef9hWa4MjNBWL41F-8wM49eA@mail.gmail.com/>`_.
+
 Variable Length Arrays (VLAs)
 -----------------------------
 Using stack VLAs produces much worse machine code than statically
-- 
2.20.1


-- 
Kees Cook

             reply	other threads:[~2020-03-04 19:13 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2020-03-04 19:13 Kees Cook [this message]
2020-03-05  6:22 ` [PATCH] docs: deprecated.rst: Add %p to the list James Troup
2020-03-05  6:47   ` Kees Cook

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=202003041103.A5842AD@keescook \
    --to=keescook@chromium.org \
    --cc=corbet@lwn.net \
    --cc=gustavo@embeddedor.com \
    --cc=linux-doc@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@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 a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).