Hello, I am in the process of testing static defect analyzer on a Linux kernel source code (see disclosure below).
I found some potential array bounds violations. The pattern is as follows: bytes are copied from the user space and then buffer is accessed on index strlen(buf)-1. This is a defect if user data start from 0. So the question is: can we make any assumptions what data may be received from the user or it could be arbitrary? For example, in ./drivers/block/cciss.c, function cciss_proc_write (line numbers are taken form 2.6.11.3): .... 293 if (count > sizeof(cmd)-1) return -EINVAL; 294 if (copy_from_user(cmd, buffer, count)) return -EFAULT; 295 cmd[count] = '\0'; 296 len = strlen(cmd); // above 3 lines ensure safety 297 if (cmd[len-1] == '\n') 298 cmd[--len] = '\0'; ..... Another example is arch/i386/kernel/cpu/mtrr/if.c, function mtrr_write: .... 107 if (copy_from_user(line, buf, len - 1)) 108 return -EFAULT; 109 ptr = line + strlen(line) - 1; 110 if (*ptr == '\n') 111 *ptr = '\0'; .... Full disclosure: I am working for Klocwork (http://www.klocwork.com/), which is a vendor of commercial closed-source proprietary products, static analyzer for C/C++ is part of its products Best regards -- Artem Frolov Senior software engineer Klocwork inc - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/