[PATCH] iov_iter: take an unsigned long segment count in import_iovec()
From: Andrea Parri
Date: Mon Oct 26 2026 - 14:07:37 EST
readv(), writev() and their positional variants, process_vm_readv(),
process_vm_writev(), vmsplice(), process_madvise(), vectored aio and
the btrfs encoded I/O ioctls all take a full-width segment count, and
all of them hand it to import_iovec() or __import_iovec(). Those take
an unsigned int count, so on 64-bit kernels the upper 32 bits are
dropped before iovec_from_user() checks the count against UIO_MAXIOV.
A count of 0x100000001 is therefore imported as one segment: writev()
on a pipe writes a byte and readv() reads it back, instead of both
failing with EINVAL. A count of 0x100000000 returns 0 as an empty
vector.
import_iovec() was added with an unsigned int count, but the helper it
wrapped, rw_copy_check_uvector(), took an unsigned long, as does
iovec_from_user() today. Until v4.1, readv(), writev(), preadv(),
pwritev(), process_vm_readv(), process_vm_writev() and vectored aio
therefore failed these counts with EINVAL, as did vmsplice() until
v4.18.
Widen nr_segs in both import helpers so the UIO_MAXIOV check sees the
count the caller passed. Callers with 32-bit counts are unaffected.
AI assistance was used to find the bug, develop the fix, and run the
reproducers.
Fixes: bc917be81059 ("saner iov_iter initialization primitives")
Signed-off-by: Andrea Parri <parri.andrea@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Tested on x86_64 with virtme-ng, base 734bef548a96e vs patched:
readv, writev, preadv, pwritev, preadv2, pwritev2, vectored aio,
process_madvise, process_vm_readv, process_vm_writev and vmsplice with
counts 0, 1, 1024, 1025, UINT_MAX, 2^32, 2^32+1, 2^32+1024, 2^32+1025
and ULONG_MAX (LONG_MAX for aio). The base kernel accepts 2^32,
2^32+1 and 2^32+1024 on every path; the patched kernel rejects every
count above 1024 with EINVAL. Also built every caller with
allmodconfig W=1, and lib/iov_iter.o and the readv, vmsplice and
process_vm callers with i386 defconfig W=1.
Reproducer (64-bit userspace):
cc -Wall -Wextra -O2 repro.c -o repro
./repro
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/syscall.h>
#include <sys/uio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main(void)
{
char source = 'x', received = '-';
struct iovec wiov = { .iov_base = &source, .iov_len = 1 };
struct iovec riov = { .iov_base = &received, .iov_len = 1 };
const unsigned long count = (1UL << 32) + 1;
long wret, rret;
int pipefd[2], werr;
if (pipe(pipefd)) {
perror("pipe");
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
errno = 0;
wret = syscall(SYS_writev, pipefd[1], &wiov, count);
werr = errno;
close(pipefd[1]);
errno = 0;
rret = syscall(SYS_readv, pipefd[0], &riov, count);
printf("writev=%ld (%s) readv=%ld (%s) byte=%c\n",
wret, strerror(werr), rret, strerror(errno), received);
close(pipefd[0]);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
include/linux/uio.h | 8 ++++----
lib/iov_iter.c | 6 +++---
2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/uio.h b/include/linux/uio.h
index fe2e985d74d24..529c6cd53df7a 100644
--- a/include/linux/uio.h
+++ b/include/linux/uio.h
@@ -362,11 +362,11 @@ struct iovec *iovec_from_user(const struct iovec __user *uvector,
unsigned long nr_segs, unsigned long fast_segs,
struct iovec *fast_iov, bool compat);
ssize_t import_iovec(int type, const struct iovec __user *uvec,
- unsigned nr_segs, unsigned fast_segs, struct iovec **iovp,
- struct iov_iter *i);
+ unsigned long nr_segs, unsigned int fast_segs,
+ struct iovec **iovp, struct iov_iter *i);
ssize_t __import_iovec(int type, const struct iovec __user *uvec,
- unsigned nr_segs, unsigned fast_segs, struct iovec **iovp,
- struct iov_iter *i, bool compat);
+ unsigned long nr_segs, unsigned int fast_segs,
+ struct iovec **iovp, struct iov_iter *i, bool compat);
int import_ubuf(int type, void __user *buf, size_t len, struct iov_iter *i);
static inline void iov_iter_ubuf(struct iov_iter *i, unsigned int direction,
diff --git a/lib/iov_iter.c b/lib/iov_iter.c
index 2072c04e99d05..55cf2ff5bfdad 100644
--- a/lib/iov_iter.c
+++ b/lib/iov_iter.c
@@ -1362,8 +1362,8 @@ static ssize_t __import_iovec_ubuf(int type, const struct iovec __user *uvec,
}
ssize_t __import_iovec(int type, const struct iovec __user *uvec,
- unsigned nr_segs, unsigned fast_segs, struct iovec **iovp,
- struct iov_iter *i, bool compat)
+ unsigned long nr_segs, unsigned int fast_segs,
+ struct iovec **iovp, struct iov_iter *i, bool compat)
{
ssize_t total_len = 0;
unsigned long seg;
@@ -1434,7 +1434,7 @@ ssize_t __import_iovec(int type, const struct iovec __user *uvec,
* Return: Negative error code on error, bytes imported on success
*/
ssize_t import_iovec(int type, const struct iovec __user *uvec,
- unsigned nr_segs, unsigned fast_segs,
+ unsigned long nr_segs, unsigned int fast_segs,
struct iovec **iovp, struct iov_iter *i)
{
return __import_iovec(type, uvec, nr_segs, fast_segs, iovp, i,
base-commit: 734bef548a96e8774d6eef5dfa2026c6edc4e80b
--
2.53.0