From: Marcelo Moreira <marcelomoreira1905@gmail.com>
To: cem@kernel.org, linux-xfs@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, skhan@linuxfoundation.org,
linux-kernel-mentees@lists.linuxfoundation.org
Subject: [PATCH] xfs: Replace strncpy with strscpy
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2025 15:20:37 -0300 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20250716182220.203631-1-marcelomoreira1905@gmail.com> (raw)
The `strncpy` function is deprecated for NUL-terminated strings as
explained in the "strncpy() on NUL-terminated strings" section of
Documentation/process/deprecated.rst.
In `xrep_symlink_salvage_inline()`, the `target_buf` (which is `sc->buf`)
is intended to hold a NUL-terminated symlink path. The original code
used `strncpy(target_buf, ifp->if_data, nr)`, where `nr` is the maximum
number of bytes to copy. This approach is problematic because `strncpy()`
does not guarantee NUL-termination if the source string is truncated
exactly at `nr` bytes, which can lead to out-of-bounds read issues
if the buffer is later treated as a NUL-terminated string.
Evidence from `fs/xfs/scrub/symlink.c` (e.g., `strnlen(sc->buf,
XFS_SYMLINK_MAXLEN)`) confirms that `sc->buf` is indeed expected to be
NUL-terminated. Furthermore, `sc->buf` is allocated with
`kvzalloc(XFS_SYMLINK_MAXLEN + 1, ...)`, explicitly reserving space for
the NUL terminator.
`strscpy()` is the proper replacement because it guarantees NUL-termination
of the destination buffer, correctly handles the copy limit, and aligns
with current kernel string-copying best practices.
Other recommended functions like `strscpy_pad()`, `memcpy()`, or
`memcpy_and_pad()` were not used because:
- `strscpy_pad()` would unnecessarily zero-pad the entire buffer beyond the
NUL terminator, which is not required as the function returns `nr` bytes.
- `memcpy()` and `memcpy_and_pad()` do not guarantee NUL-termination, which
is critical given `target_buf` is used as a NUL-terminated string.
This change improves code safety and clarity by using a safer function for
string copying.
Signed-off-by: Marcelo Moreira <marcelomoreira1905@gmail.com>
---
fs/xfs/scrub/symlink_repair.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/fs/xfs/scrub/symlink_repair.c b/fs/xfs/scrub/symlink_repair.c
index 953ce7be78dc..ce21c7f0ef54 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/scrub/symlink_repair.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/scrub/symlink_repair.c
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ xrep_symlink_salvage_inline(
return 0;
nr = min(XFS_SYMLINK_MAXLEN, xfs_inode_data_fork_size(ip));
- strncpy(target_buf, ifp->if_data, nr);
+ strscpy(target_buf, ifp->if_data, XFS_SYMLINK_MAXLEN + 1);
return nr;
}
--
2.50.0
next reply other threads:[~2025-07-16 18:22 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-07-16 18:20 Marcelo Moreira [this message]
2025-07-16 23:52 ` [PATCH] xfs: Replace strncpy with strscpy Dave Chinner
2025-07-17 17:34 ` Marcelo Moreira
2025-07-18 11:16 ` Dave Chinner
2025-07-18 19:10 ` Marcelo Moreira
2025-07-20 13:35 ` Carlos Maiolino
2025-07-20 22:24 ` Marcelo Moreira
2025-07-17 16:39 ` Darrick J. Wong
2025-07-17 17:36 ` Marcelo Moreira
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