From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: mm-commits@vger.kernel.org,stable@vger.kernel.org,rostedt@goodmis.org,mhiramat@kernel.org,include@grrlz.net,akpm@linux-foundation.org
Subject: + lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch added to mm-nonmm-unstable branch
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:33:54 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260630193354.870441F000E9@smtp.kernel.org> (raw)
The patch titled
Subject: lib/bootconfig: fix undefined behavior involving NULL pointer arithmetic
has been added to the -mm mm-nonmm-unstable branch. Its filename is
lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch
This patch will shortly appear at
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/25-new.git/tree/patches/lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch
This patch will later appear in the mm-nonmm-unstable branch at
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/akpm/mm
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------------------------------------------------------
From: Bradley Morgan <include@grrlz.net>
Subject: lib/bootconfig: fix undefined behavior involving NULL pointer arithmetic
Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:47:46 +0000
When xbc_snprint_cmdline() is called during the size-probing phase (with
buf = NULL and size = 0), the function computes the end pointer as 'buf +
size' (NULL + 0) and repeatedly advances 'buf' via 'buf += ret'.
Under the C standard, performing pointer arithmetic on a NULL pointer is
undefined behavior. While harmless inside the kernel, this code is also
compiled into the userspace host tool 'tools/bootconfig', where host
compilers with UBSan or FORTIFY_SOURCE enabled abort the build when they
detect NULL pointer arithmetic.
Fix this by guarding the pointer arithmetic so 'buf' is only advanced when
non-NULL, and track the running written length in a separate 'len' counter
for the return value (which cannot be recovered from pointer math when
'buf' is NULL). The rest() helper and snprintf call sites are unchanged.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20260630174746.14795-1-include@grrlz.net
Fixes: 51887d03aca1 ("bootconfig: init: Allow admin to use bootconfig for kernel command line")
Assisted-by: GLM:glm-5.2
Signed-off-by: Bradley Morgan <include@grrlz.net>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
---
lib/bootconfig.c | 13 +++++++++----
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
--- a/lib/bootconfig.c~lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic
+++ a/lib/bootconfig.c
@@ -427,8 +427,9 @@ static char xbc_namebuf[XBC_KEYLEN_MAX]
int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf, size_t size, struct xbc_node *root)
{
struct xbc_node *knode, *vnode;
- char *end = buf + size;
+ char *end = buf ? buf + size : NULL;
const char *val, *q;
+ size_t len = 0;
int ret;
xbc_node_for_each_key_value(root, knode, val) {
@@ -442,7 +443,9 @@ int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf
ret = snprintf(buf, rest(buf, end), "%s ", xbc_namebuf);
if (ret < 0)
return ret;
- buf += ret;
+ len += ret;
+ if (buf)
+ buf += ret;
continue;
}
xbc_array_for_each_value(vnode, val) {
@@ -456,11 +459,13 @@ int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf
xbc_namebuf, q, val, q);
if (ret < 0)
return ret;
- buf += ret;
+ len += ret;
+ if (buf)
+ buf += ret;
}
}
- return buf - (end - size);
+ return len;
}
#undef rest
_
Patches currently in -mm which might be from include@grrlz.net are
lib-string-fix-memchr_inv-for-large-ranges.patch
signal-avoid-shared-siginfo-namespace-rewrites.patch
lib-bootconfig-fix-undefined-behavior-involving-null-pointer-arithmetic.patch
reply other threads:[~2026-06-30 19:33 UTC|newest]
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