From: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>
To: linux-man@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>, serge@hallyn.com
Subject: [PATCH 0/2] Split *s*printf(3) from printf(3), and document the snprintf(,-1,) is UB
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2025 21:14:08 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <cover.1764964289.git.alx@kernel.org> (raw)
Hi!
Serge and I were reviewing some code, and we realized that it seems
quite easy to induce a buffer overflow using snprintf(3).
We solved our problems by checking that the size is non-negative in
a wrapper inline function.
// vstprintf - va_list string truncate print formatted
inline int
vstprintf(char *restrict s, ssize_t size, const char *restrict fmt, va_list ap)
{
int len;
if (size <= 0 || size > INT_MAX) {
errno = EOVERFLOW;
return -1;
}
len = vsnprintf(s, size, fmt, ap);
if (len == -1) {
if (errno == EOVERFLOW)
errno = E2BIG;
return -1;
}
if (len >= size) {
errno = E2BIG;
return -1;
}
return len;
}
[v]snprintf(3) seems to be even worse than I thought it was.
Let's document this.
Alejandro Colomar (2):
man/man3/*printf.3: Split *s*printf(3) from printf(3)
man/man3/snprintf.3: BUGS: snprintf(3) with a negative size is
essentially UB
man/man3/printf.3 | 223 +---------------------------
man/man3/snprintf.3 | 337 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
man/man3/sprintf.3 | 2 +-
man/man3/vsnprintf.3 | 2 +-
man/man3/vsprintf.3 | 2 +-
5 files changed, 346 insertions(+), 220 deletions(-)
Range-diff:
-: --------- > 1: a654dcfc2 man/man3/*printf.3: Split *s*printf(3) from printf(3)
-: --------- > 2: d00ed9434 man/man3/snprintf.3: BUGS: snprintf(3) with a negative size is essentially UB
base-commit: 2a5edb7e59ae024d1969e7379c078a58b5f50b80
--
2.51.0
next reply other threads:[~2025-12-05 20:14 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-12-05 20:14 Alejandro Colomar [this message]
2025-12-05 20:14 ` [PATCH 1/2] man/man3/*printf.3: Split *s*printf(3) from printf(3) Alejandro Colomar
2025-12-05 20:14 ` [PATCH 2/2] man/man3/snprintf.3: BUGS: snprintf(3) with a negative size is essentially UB Alejandro Colomar
2025-12-05 20:46 ` Alejandro Colomar
2025-12-06 13:32 ` Alejandro Colomar
2025-12-06 17:33 ` Serge Hallyn
2025-12-06 17:45 ` Alejandro Colomar
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