Re: [PATCH] tty: vt: keyboard: do not copy an extra-byte in copy_to_user

From: Pavel Skripkin
Date: Sat Nov 06 2021 - 08:39:25 EST


On 11/6/21 15:05, Ajay Garg wrote:
Hi Pavel,

Thanks for the review.

> len = strlcpy(kbs, func_table[kb_func] ? : "", len);

^^^^^^^^^

len is reinitialized here, i.e len passed to kmalloc and len passed to
copy_to_user() can be different.

Sorry, I missed this part.



strlcpy() returns strlen() of source string (2nd argument), that's why
we need +1 here to pass null byte to user.

Am I missing something?



Seems things are more screwed.
I tried to see the behaviour, via a small program as below :

##########################
#include <stdio.h>
#include <bsd/string.h>

char a[10] = {0};
char b[] = "1234567890123456";

int main()
{
int len = strlcpy(a, b, sizeof(a));
printf("len = [%d]\n", len);
printf("a = [%s]\n", a);

return 0;
}
##########################


The result is :

##########################
len = [16]
a = [123456789]
##########################


As seen, len is *not equal* to the number of bytes actually copied.
(The bytes actually copied are 9 in number, plus 1 for the terminator,
as expected by strlcpy).

On re-reading the doc for strlcpy, it seems that strlcpy returns the
length of src it "intended* to copy, and not the bytes *actually
copied*. If so, then returned value of len is meaningless.


return value from strlcpy() is simply strlen(src)

lib/string.c:141
```
size_t strlcpy(char *dest, const char *src, size_t size)
{
size_t ret = strlen(src);

if (size) {
size_t len = (ret >= size) ? size - 1 : ret;
memcpy(dest, src, len);
dest[len] = '\0';
}
return ret;
}

```


I guess, it's what you mean by "intended to copy"




So, it seems following two changes should be made in the original code :

1.
len = strlcpy(kbs, func_table[kb_func] ? : "", len);
=>
strlcpy(kbs, func_table[kb_func] ? : "", len);


2.
ret = copy_to_user(user_kdgkb->kb_string, kbs, len) ?
-EFAULT : 0;
=>
ret = copy_to_user(user_kdgkb->kb_string, kbs, strlen(kbs) + 1) ?
-EFAULT : 0;


In 1, we change to simply not using the returned value of strlcpy.
In 2, we change to using strlen(kbs) + 1, as the number of bytes to copy.


If I understood correctly, you are trying to prevent some kind of overflow here, right?

I see, that strlen(func_table[i]) cannot be greater than sizeof(user_kdgkb->kb_string) - 1.

vt_kdskbsent() is used to set func_table ptrs. It's called only from vt_do_kdgkb_ioctl(). Buffer is allocated via

strndup_user(user_kdgkb->kb_string, sizeof(user_kdgkb->kb_string));

It means that maximum strlen() of returned pointer will be sizeof(user_kdgkb->kb_string)) - 1, because 2nd argument is size *with* null byte.



Back to KDGKBSENT handler: kbs is sizeof(user_kdgkb->kb_string) allocated buffer and strlcpy() will return strlen(func_table[kb_func]), which is guaranteed to be less than sizeof(user_kdgkb->kb_string). It looks save to use strlcpy() return value here, because 3rd argument is greater than strlen() of second argument.



Let me know if I am completely wrong here :)



With regards,
Pavel Skripkin