linux-kernel - [PATCH 5/6] kallsyms: Clean up @namebuf initialization in kallsyms_lookup

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Message-ID: <20251105142319.1139183-6-pmladek@suse.com>
Date: Wed,  5 Nov 2025 15:23:17 +0100
From: Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
To: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@...e.com>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Alexei Starovoitov <ast@...nel.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Kees Cook <kees@...nel.org>
Cc: Daniel Borkmann <daniel@...earbox.net>,
	John Fastabend <john.fastabend@...il.com>,
	Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@...nel.org>,
	Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>,
	Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>,
	Daniel Gomez <da.gomez@...nel.org>,
	Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	bpf@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-modules@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-trace-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
Subject: [PATCH 5/6] kallsyms: Clean up @namebuf initialization in kallsyms_lookup_buildid()

The function kallsyms_lookup_buildid() initializes the given @namebuf
by clearing the first and the last byte. It is not clear why.

The 1st byte makes sense because some callers ignore the return code
and expect that the buffer contains a valid string, for example:

  - function_stat_show()
    - kallsyms_lookup()
      - kallsyms_lookup_buildid()

The initialization of the last byte does not make much sense because it
can later be overwritten. Fortunately, it seems that all called
functions behave correctly:

  -  kallsyms_expand_symbol() explicitly adds the trailing '\0'
     at the end of the function.

  - All *__address_lookup() functions either use the safe strscpy()
    or they do not touch the buffer at all.

Document the reason for clearing the first byte. And remove the useless
initialization of the last byte.

Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>
---
 kernel/kallsyms.c | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/kernel/kallsyms.c b/kernel/kallsyms.c
index 71868a76e9a1..ff7017337535 100644
--- a/kernel/kallsyms.c
+++ b/kernel/kallsyms.c
@@ -352,7 +352,12 @@ static int kallsyms_lookup_buildid(unsigned long addr,
 {
 	int ret;
 
-	namebuf[KSYM_NAME_LEN - 1] = 0;
+	/*
+	 * kallsyms_lookus() returns pointer to namebuf on success and
+	 * NULL on error. But some callers ignore the return value.
+	 * Instead they expect @namebuf filled either with valid
+	 * or empty string.
+	 */
 	namebuf[0] = 0;
 
 	if (is_ksym_addr(addr)) {
-- 
2.51.1