linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 8/8] exec: open code copy_string

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <20200419080646.GE12222@lst.de>
Date:   Sun, 19 Apr 2020 10:06:46 +0200
From:   Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>
To:     Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@....fr>
Cc:     Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Jeremy Kerr <jk@...abs.org>, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
        linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org,
        "Eric W . Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 8/8] exec: open code copy_string_kernel

On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 10:15:42AM +0200, Christophe Leroy wrote:
>
>
> Le 14/04/2020 à 09:01, Christoph Hellwig a écrit :
>> Currently copy_string_kernel is just a wrapper around copy_strings that
>> simplifies the calling conventions and uses set_fs to allow passing a
>> kernel pointer.  But due to the fact the we only need to handle a single
>> kernel argument pointer, the logic can be sigificantly simplified while
>> getting rid of the set_fs.
>
>
> Instead of duplicating almost identical code, can you write a function that 
> takes whether the source is from user or from kernel, then you just do 
> things like:
>
> 	if (from_user)
> 		len = strnlen_user(str, MAX_ARG_STRLEN);
> 	else
> 		len = strnlen(str, MAX_ARG_STRLEN);
>
>
> 	if (from_user)
> 		copy_from_user(kaddr+offset, str, bytes_to_copy);
> 	else
> 		memcpy(kaddr+offset, str, bytes_to_copy);

We'll need two different str variables then with and without __user
annotations to keep type safety.  And introduce a branch-y and unreadable
mess in the exec fast path instead of adding a simple and well understood
function for the kernel case that just deals with the much simpler case
of just copying a single arg vector from a kernel address.