Re: [PATCH] accessibility: speakup: refactor deprecated strncpy

From: Kees Cook
Date: Fri Aug 25 2023 - 17:50:38 EST


On Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 09:44:29PM +0000, Justin Stitt wrote:
> `strncpy` is deprecated for use on NUL-terminated destination strings [1].
>
> Use `strscpy` as it guarantees NUL-termination of its destination buffer [2]
> which allows for simpler and less ambiguous code.
>
> Also, change `strlen(buf)` to `strlen(ptr)` to be consistent with
> further usage within the scope of the function. Note that these are
> equivalent:
> |419 const char *ptr = buf;
>
> Link: www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/deprecated.html#strncpy-on-nul-terminated-strings[1]
> Link: https://manpages.debian.org/testing/linux-manual-4.8/strscpy.9.en.html [2]
> Link: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/90
> Cc: linux-hardening@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Justin Stitt <justinstitt@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Note: build-tested only.
> ---
> drivers/accessibility/speakup/kobjects.c | 5 ++---
> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/accessibility/speakup/kobjects.c b/drivers/accessibility/speakup/kobjects.c
> index a7522d409802..8aa416c5f3fc 100644
> --- a/drivers/accessibility/speakup/kobjects.c
> +++ b/drivers/accessibility/speakup/kobjects.c
> @@ -422,12 +422,11 @@ static ssize_t synth_direct_store(struct kobject *kobj,
> if (!synth)
> return -EPERM;
>
> - len = strlen(buf);
> + len = strlen(ptr);
> spin_lock_irqsave(&speakup_info.spinlock, flags);
> while (len > 0) {
> bytes = min_t(size_t, len, 250);
> - strncpy(tmp, ptr, bytes);
> - tmp[bytes] = '\0';
> + strscpy(tmp, ptr, bytes);
> string_unescape_any_inplace(tmp);
> synth_printf("%s", tmp);
> ptr += bytes;

Technically, yes, this is fine...

Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

But wow do you find the most amazing code. :)

This thing is taking a buffer and chopping it up into at-most 250 byte
chunks (smaller than buf, I might add), and then sending it to
synth_printf() ... which uses a 160 byte buffer and silently
truncates... and uses "%s" which is just a string copy...
why doesn't this just use synth_write() directly on an unescaped
buf??

I think this entire function should just be:

static ssize_t synth_direct_store(struct kobject *kobj,
struct kobj_attribute *attr,
const char *buf, size_t count)
{
char *unescaped;
char *p;

if (!synth)
return -EPERM;

unescaped = kstrdup(buf, GFP_KERNEL);
if (!unescaped)
return -ENOMEM;

string_unescape_any_inplace(unescaped);

spin_lock_irqsave(&speakup_info.spinlock, flags);
synth_write(unescaped, strlen(unescaped));
spin_unlock_irqrestore(&speakup_info.spinlock, flags);

kfree(unescaped);

return count;
}

(Though honestly, why does this need unescaping anyway?)

-Kees

--
Kees Cook