From: Fushuai Wang <fushuai.wang@linux.dev>
To: aliceryhl@google.com
Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org, bp@alien8.de, brauner@kernel.org,
cyphar@cyphar.com, dave.hansen@linux.intel.com,
fushuai.wang@linux.dev, hpa@zytor.com, jack@suse.cz,
kees@kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
linux-trace-kernel@vger.kernel.org, luto@kernel.org,
mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com, mhiramat@kernel.org,
mingo@redhat.com, peterz@infradead.org, rostedt@goodmis.org,
tglx@kernel.org, vmalik@redhat.com, wangfushuai@baidu.com,
x86@kernel.org, yury.norov@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 1/6] uaccess: Add copy_from_user_nul helper
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2026 20:22:36 +0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260112122236.22214-1-fushuai.wang@linux.dev> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAH5fLgiPdBEN7mjgK64u19VGE_AWghTnCCHYuQQuwnTdvDaYkw@mail.gmail.com>
> strncpy_from_user() succeeds even if userspace data does not contain a
> nul. Then it reads length bytes.
Yes, but if there is no NUL byte in the user buf, whether you use
strncpy_from_user() or copy_from_user(), you need to manually add
a '\0' in the kernel buf to ensure it is properly NUL-terminated.
like:
ret = strncpy_from_user(&buffer[0], arg, sizeof(buffer) - 1);
if (ret < 0) {
ret = -EFAULT;
break;
}
buffer[sizeof(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
So I do not think copy_from_user() + '\0' can be instead of strncpy_from_user().
I think strncpy_from_user() can only be used without manually appending '\0'
if someone are certain that the user buf contains a NUL byte.
---
Regards,
WANG
> As far as I can tell, when a nul byte is present, none of these kernel
> use-cases use data after the nul byte. So the behavior is identical
> except that copy_from_user_nul() may result in EFAULT if there are
> unmapped bytes between the first nul byte in `src` and `src+len`.
>
> Alice
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-01-12 12:23 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 21+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-01-12 7:30 [PATCH v2 0/6] uaccess: Introduce copy_from_user_nul helper Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 7:30 ` [PATCH v2 1/6] uaccess: Add " Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 9:23 ` Alice Ryhl
2026-01-12 10:00 ` Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 11:20 ` Alice Ryhl
2026-01-12 12:22 ` Fushuai Wang [this message]
2026-01-12 13:22 ` Borislav Petkov
2026-01-12 15:40 ` Alice Ryhl
2026-01-12 16:28 ` Steven Rostedt
2026-01-12 16:37 ` Alice Ryhl
2026-01-13 18:00 ` Yury Norov
2026-01-13 18:17 ` Yury Norov
2026-01-16 8:42 ` Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 7:30 ` [PATCH v2 2/6] x86/tlb: Use copy_from_user_nul() instead of copy_from_user() Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 7:30 ` [PATCH v2 3/6] tracing: " Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 15:43 ` Steven Rostedt
2026-01-13 17:05 ` Yury Norov
2026-01-13 18:03 ` Steven Rostedt
2026-01-12 7:30 ` [PATCH v2 4/6] userns: " Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 7:30 ` [PATCH v2 5/6] time: " Fushuai Wang
2026-01-12 7:30 ` [PATCH v2 6/6] kstrtox: " Fushuai Wang
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