linux-kernel - [PATCH v3] bootconfig: do not put quotes on cmdline items unless necessary

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>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-Id: <20240320101952.62135-1-linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk>
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2024 11:19:52 +0100
From: Rasmus Villemoes <linux@...musvillemoes.dk>
To: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@...nel.org>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Rasmus Villemoes <linux@...musvillemoes.dk>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH v3] bootconfig: do not put quotes on cmdline items unless necessary

When trying to migrate to using bootconfig to embed the kernel's and
PID1's command line with the kernel image itself, and so allowing
changing that without modifying the bootloader, I noticed that
/proc/cmdline changed from e.g.

  console=ttymxc0,115200n8 cma=128M quiet -- --log-level=notice

to

  console="ttymxc0,115200n8" cma="128M" quiet -- --log-level="notice"

The kernel parameters are parsed just fine, and the quotes are indeed
stripped from the actual argv[] given to PID1. However, the quoting
doesn't really serve any purpose and looks excessive, and might
confuse some (naive) userspace tool trying to parse /proc/cmdline. So
do not quote the value unless it contains whitespace.

Signed-off-by: Rasmus Villemoes <linux@...musvillemoes.dk>
---
v3: Add comment explaining why the quoting is conditional.

v2: use strpbrk(, " \t\r\n") instead of a loop doing isspace().

 init/main.c | 12 +++++++++---
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/init/main.c b/init/main.c
index e24b0780fdff..7a5efe363938 100644
--- a/init/main.c
+++ b/init/main.c
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@ static int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf, size_t size,
 {
 	struct xbc_node *knode, *vnode;
 	char *end = buf + size;
-	const char *val;
+	const char *val, *q;
 	int ret;
 
 	xbc_node_for_each_key_value(root, knode, val) {
@@ -342,8 +342,14 @@ static int __init xbc_snprint_cmdline(char *buf, size_t size,
 			continue;
 		}
 		xbc_array_for_each_value(vnode, val) {
-			ret = snprintf(buf, rest(buf, end), "%s=\"%s\" ",
-				       xbc_namebuf, val);
+			/*
+			 * For prettier and more readable /proc/cmdline, only
+			 * quote the value when necessary, i.e. when it contains
+			 * whitespace.
+			 */
+			q = strpbrk(val, " \t\r\n") ? "\"" : "";
+			ret = snprintf(buf, rest(buf, end), "%s=%s%s%s ",
+				       xbc_namebuf, q, val, q);
 			if (ret < 0)
 				return ret;
 			buf += ret;
-- 
2.40.1.1.g1c60b9335d