Re: [PATCH] kdb: prevent possible null deref in kdb_msg_write

Daniel Thompson
2020-06-29T19:18:40Z

On Mon, Jun 29, 2020 at 04:59:24PM +0300, Cengiz Can wrote:
> `kdb_msg_write` operates on a global `struct kgdb_io *` called
> `dbg_io_ops`.
>
> Although it is initialized in `debug_core.c`, there's a null check in
> `kdb_msg_write` which implies that it can be null whenever we dereference
> it in this function call.
>
> Coverity scanner caught this as CID 1465042.
>
> I have modified the function to bail out if `dbg_io_ops` is not properly
> initialized.

That can't possibly be the right fix!

If dbg_io_ops were NULL in this part of the code then the system
is seriously broken and we would need to panic()... but since we
know that is isn't NULL (as you said, we already checked it before
we entered kdb) then we can just remove the check.

Daniel.

>
> Signed-off-by: Cengiz Can <cengiz@kernel.wtf>
> ---
> kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_io.c | 15 ++++++++-------
> 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_io.c b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_io.c
> index 683a799618ad..85e579812458 100644
> --- a/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_io.c
> +++ b/kernel/debug/kdb/kdb_io.c
> @@ -549,14 +549,15 @@ static void kdb_msg_write(const char *msg, int msg_len)
> if (msg_len == 0)
> return;
>
> - if (dbg_io_ops) {
> - const char *cp = msg;
> - int len = msg_len;
> + if (!dbg_io_ops)
> + return;
>
> - while (len--) {
> - dbg_io_ops->write_char(*cp);
> - cp++;
> - }
> + const char *cp = msg;
> + int len = msg_len;
> +
> + while (len--) {
> + dbg_io_ops->write_char(*cp);
> + cp++;
> }
>
> for_each_console(c) {
> --
> 2.27.0
>