[PATCH v2 1/9] seq_buf: Do not print an empty line from an overflowed seq_buf_do_printk()
From: Kees Cook
Date: Fri Sep 18 2026 - 20:27:54 EST
seq_buf_do_printk() prints a buffer line by line, then prints whatever
follows the last newline. When a string has overflowed at exactly a
newline, an empty line is printed since the pointer hasn't reached the
overflow mark of the seq_buf. Switch to just check if the string is
already empty and only print if not.
The only caller is the memory cgroup OOM report, so this could only ever
add a blank line to a report whose statistics already did not fit.
Add a test that registers a console to count the records that
seq_buf_do_printk() emits. It counts the records carrying the test's
marker, and the records holding nothing but a line feed that arrive
after one, so that unrelated kernel messages do not disturb it. Both
states that reach the flaw are covered: exactly full, and overflowed.
Tests passed under qemu on ARCH=x86_64 with GCC 16.2.0 and CONFIG_KASAN=y,
and on big-endian ARCH=s390 with GCC s390x-linux-gnu 16.1.0.
Fixes: 96928d9032a7c ("seq_buf: Add seq_buf_do_printk() helper")
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: David Gow <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Petr Mladek <pmladek@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Shuvam Pandey <shuvampandey1@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
lib/seq_buf.c | 2 +-
lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c | 133 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 134 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/lib/seq_buf.c b/lib/seq_buf.c
index a92093f346da..35a5964370b4 100644
--- a/lib/seq_buf.c
+++ b/lib/seq_buf.c
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ void seq_buf_do_printk(struct seq_buf *s, const char *lvl)
}
/* No trailing LF */
- if (start < s->buffer + s->len)
+ if (*start)
printk("%s%s\n", lvl, start);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(seq_buf_do_printk);
diff --git a/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c b/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c
index eb466386bbef..9ceccdc3029f 100644
--- a/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c
+++ b/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@
*/
#include <kunit/test.h>
+#include <linux/console.h>
#include <linux/seq_buf.h>
+#include <linux/string.h>
static void seq_buf_init_test(struct kunit *test)
{
@@ -216,6 +218,136 @@ static void seq_buf_putmem_hex_overflow_test(struct kunit *test)
KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ(test, seq_buf_str(&s), expected);
}
+
+/*
+ * Counters for the console that seq_buf_do_printk_test() registers while it
+ * runs. Only records carrying the marker are counted, so unrelated kernel
+ * messages do not disturb them.
+ *
+ * An empty record carries nothing to recognize it by, so count one only
+ * where the flaw puts it: directly after a record of ours, with nothing in
+ * between. That still misreads a bare line feed printed by another CPU in
+ * exactly that gap, but no longer counts one printed at any point while the
+ * console happens to be registered.
+ */
+#define SEQ_BUF_PRINTK_MARKER "sbdpkx"
+
+static unsigned int seq_buf_printk_marked;
+static unsigned int seq_buf_printk_empty;
+static bool seq_buf_printk_last_was_ours;
+
+static void seq_buf_printk_capture(struct console *con, const char *s,
+ unsigned int count)
+{
+ const char *text = s;
+ const char *prefix;
+
+ /*
+ * Skip what printk() puts in front of the message: a timestamp,
+ * and the caller id as well under CONFIG_PRINTK_CALLER, so strip
+ * every bracketed group rather than just the first.
+ */
+ while (count && text[0] == '[') {
+ prefix = memchr(text, ']', count);
+ if (!prefix)
+ break;
+ count -= prefix + 1 - text;
+ text = prefix + 1;
+ if (count && text[0] == ' ') {
+ text++;
+ count--;
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (strnstr(text, SEQ_BUF_PRINTK_MARKER, count)) {
+ seq_buf_printk_marked++;
+ seq_buf_printk_last_was_ours = true;
+ return;
+ }
+
+ if (seq_buf_printk_last_was_ours &&
+ (count == 0 || (count == 1 && text[0] == '\n')))
+ seq_buf_printk_empty++;
+
+ seq_buf_printk_last_was_ours = false;
+}
+
+static void seq_buf_printk_run(struct console *capture, struct seq_buf *s)
+{
+ seq_buf_printk_marked = 0;
+ seq_buf_printk_empty = 0;
+ seq_buf_printk_last_was_ours = false;
+
+ /*
+ * register_console() will not take an unmatched console without
+ * CON_ENABLED, and unregister_console() clears it, so set it on
+ * every run to keep the test repeatable.
+ */
+ capture->flags = CON_ENABLED;
+ register_console(capture);
+ seq_buf_do_printk(s, KERN_INFO);
+ unregister_console(capture);
+}
+
+static void seq_buf_do_printk_test(struct kunit *test)
+{
+ /*
+ * A registered console is a global object: printk() reaches it
+ * through the console list from any CPU, and the console code writes
+ * back into it, so keep it out of this function's stack frame the
+ * way every other console in the tree does.
+ */
+ static struct console capture = {
+ .name = "sbufcap",
+ .write = seq_buf_printk_capture,
+ .index = -1,
+ };
+ DECLARE_SEQ_BUF(s, 8);
+ DECLARE_SEQ_BUF(t, 16);
+ DECLARE_SEQ_BUF(u, 8);
+
+ /*
+ * Fill the buffer exactly, so that the NUL takes the place of the
+ * last byte and the string ends with the line feed before it.
+ */
+ seq_buf_puts(&s, SEQ_BUF_PRINTK_MARKER);
+ seq_buf_putc(&s, '\n');
+ seq_buf_putc(&s, '!');
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_FALSE(test, seq_buf_has_overflowed(&s));
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_EQ(test, seq_buf_used(&s), 8);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_EQ(test, strlen(seq_buf_str(&s)), 7);
+
+ seq_buf_printk_run(&capture, &s);
+
+ /* The one line that was written, and nothing after it. */
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_printk_marked, 1);
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_printk_empty, 0);
+
+ /* Check that lines without a trailing newline are shown. */
+ seq_buf_puts(&t, SEQ_BUF_PRINTK_MARKER "\n" SEQ_BUF_PRINTK_MARKER);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_FALSE(test, seq_buf_has_overflowed(&t));
+
+ seq_buf_printk_run(&capture, &t);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_printk_marked, 2);
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_printk_empty, 0);
+
+ /*
+ * The buffer above was exactly full, where "len" equals the size. A
+ * buffer that actually overflowed reaches the same bug by the other
+ * route the old test had, with "len" one past the size.
+ */
+ seq_buf_puts(&u, SEQ_BUF_PRINTK_MARKER "\n");
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_puts(&u, "yy"), -1);
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_TRUE(test, seq_buf_has_overflowed(&u));
+ KUNIT_ASSERT_EQ(test, u.len, u.size + 1);
+
+ seq_buf_printk_run(&capture, &u);
+
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_printk_marked, 1);
+ KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_printk_empty, 0);
+}
+
static struct kunit_case seq_buf_test_cases[] = {
KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_init_test),
KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_declare_test),
@@ -228,6 +360,7 @@ static struct kunit_case seq_buf_test_cases[] = {
KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_get_buf_commit_test),
KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_putmem_hex_test),
KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_putmem_hex_overflow_test),
+ KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_do_printk_test),
{}
};
--
2.34.1