[PATCH v2 1/2] tracing/hist: rebuild full_name on each hist_field_name() call

From: Pengpeng Hou

Date: Sun Mar 29 2026 - 22:50:10 EST


hist_field_name() uses a static MAX_FILTER_STR_VAL buffer for fully
qualified variable-reference names, but it currently appends into that
buffer with strcat() without rebuilding it first. As a result, repeated
calls append a new "system.event.field" name onto the previous one,
which can eventually run past the end of full_name.

Build the name with snprintf() on each call and return NULL if the fully
qualified name does not fit in MAX_FILTER_STR_VAL.

Fixes: 067fe038e70f ("tracing: Add variable reference handling to hist triggers")
Signed-off-by: Pengpeng Hou <pengpeng@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
v2:
- rebuild full_name on each call instead of falling back to field->name
- return NULL on overflow as suggested
- split out the snprintf() length check instead of using an inline if

kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c | 12 +++++++-----
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
index 73ea180cad55..f9c8a4f078ea 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
@@ -1361,12 +1361,14 @@ static const char *hist_field_name(struct hist_field *field,
field->flags & HIST_FIELD_FL_VAR_REF) {
if (field->system) {
static char full_name[MAX_FILTER_STR_VAL];
+ int len;
+
+ len = snprintf(full_name, sizeof(full_name), "%s.%s.%s",
+ field->system, field->event_name,
+ field->name);
+ if (len >= sizeof(full_name))
+ return NULL;

- strcat(full_name, field->system);
- strcat(full_name, ".");
- strcat(full_name, field->event_name);
- strcat(full_name, ".");
- strcat(full_name, field->name);
field_name = full_name;
} else
field_name = field->name;
--
2.50.1 (Apple Git-155)