Re: [PATCH] powerpc/kexec: Annotate umem_info members with __counted_by_ptr

[Thorsten Blum]

On Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 11:49:04AM +0530, Sourabh Jain wrote:
> On 30/07/26 18:32, Thorsten Blum wrote:
> > Add __counted_by_ptr() to umem_info::buf and umem_info::ranges to
> > improve access bounds checking via CONFIG_UBSAN_BOUNDS and
> > CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE.
> > 
> > Set the count fields before assigning the corresponding pointers, return
> > early on krealloc() failure, and use sizeof(*buf) when deriving
> > max_entries from the allocation size.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Thorsten Blum <thorsten.blum@xxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >   arch/powerpc/kexec/file_load_64.c | 22 ++++++++++++----------
> >   1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kexec/file_load_64.c b/arch/powerpc/kexec/file_load_64.c
> > index 8c72e12ea44e..6424b668f0e9 100644
> > --- a/arch/powerpc/kexec/file_load_64.c
> > +++ b/arch/powerpc/kexec/file_load_64.c
> > @@ -34,14 +34,15 @@
> >   #include <asm/cputhreads.h>
> >   struct umem_info {
> > -	__be64 *buf;		/* data buffer for usable-memory property */
> > +	/* data buffer for usable-memory property */
> > +	__be64 *buf __counted_by_ptr(max_entries);
> >   	u32 size;		/* size allocated for the data buffer */
> >   	u32 max_entries;	/* maximum no. of entries */
> >   	u32 idx;		/* index of current entry */
> >   	/* usable memory ranges to look up */
> >   	unsigned int nr_ranges;
> > -	const struct range *ranges;
> > +	const struct range *ranges __counted_by_ptr(nr_ranges);
> >   };
> [...]
> >   const struct kexec_file_ops * const kexec_file_loaders[] = {
> > @@ -83,11 +84,12 @@ static __be64 *check_realloc_usable_mem(struct umem_info *um_info, int cnt)
> >   	new_size = um_info->size + MEM_RANGE_CHUNK_SZ;
> >   	tbuf = krealloc(um_info->buf, new_size, GFP_KERNEL);
> > -	if (tbuf) {
> > -		um_info->buf = tbuf;
> > -		um_info->size = new_size;
> > -		um_info->max_entries = (um_info->size / sizeof(u64));
> > -	}
> > +	if (!tbuf)
> > +		return NULL;
> > +
> > +	um_info->size = new_size;
> > +	um_info->max_entries = um_info->size / sizeof(*um_info->buf);
> > +	um_info->buf = tbuf;
> 
> 
> Could you please explain why size and max_entries are updated before the
> buffer itself?

__counted_by_ptr() requires the counter ->max_entries to be set before
the ->buf pointer is assigned; otherwise you have an inconsistent state
where the counter doesn't match the pointer.

And ->size is moved up because ->max_entries depends on it.