[PATCH v2] audit: fix potential integer overflow in audit_log_n_hex()

From: Ricardo Robaina

Date: Mon Jun 01 2026 - 09:12:07 EST


The function calculates new_len as len << 1 for hex encoding. This
has two overflow risks: the shift itself can overflow when len is
large, and the result can be truncated when assigned to new_len
(declared as int) from the size_t calculation.

Fix by using check_shl_overflow() to catch shift overflow and
changing new_len and loop counter i to size_t to prevent truncation.

Fixes: 168b7173959f ("AUDIT: Clean up logging of untrusted strings")
Signed-off-by: Ricardo Robaina <rrobaina@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Use check_shl_overflow() instead of manual overflow check.

kernel/audit.c | 10 ++++++++--
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/audit.c b/kernel/audit.c
index e1d489bc2dff..8ca268610641 100644
--- a/kernel/audit.c
+++ b/kernel/audit.c
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@
#include <net/ip.h>
#include <net/ipv6.h>
#include <linux/sctp.h>
+#include <linux/overflow.h>

#include "audit.h"

@@ -2076,7 +2077,8 @@ void audit_log_format(struct audit_buffer *ab, const char *fmt, ...)
void audit_log_n_hex(struct audit_buffer *ab, const unsigned char *buf,
size_t len)
{
- int i, avail, new_len;
+ int avail;
+ size_t i, new_len;
unsigned char *ptr;
struct sk_buff *skb;

@@ -2084,9 +2086,13 @@ void audit_log_n_hex(struct audit_buffer *ab, const unsigned char *buf,
return;

BUG_ON(!ab->skb);
+
skb = ab->skb;
avail = skb_tailroom(skb);
- new_len = len<<1;
+
+ if (check_shl_overflow(len, 1, &new_len))
+ return;
+
if (new_len >= avail) {
/* Round the buffer request up to the next multiple */
new_len = AUDIT_BUFSIZ*(((new_len-avail)/AUDIT_BUFSIZ) + 1);
--
2.53.0