Re: [PATCH 0/3] add new strscpy() API for string copy

From: Chris Metcalf
Date: Mon May 11 2015 - 11:38:12 EST


Ping! There was a little feedback on the strscpy() patch series,
but I think at this point it boiled down to adding a __must_check
on strscpy(), which I've done. Any further opinions? Would
anyone like to volunteer to take this into their tree? Or Linus,
are you ready to pull it directly when the merge window opens?

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/cmetcalf/linux-tile.git strscpy

Thanks!

On 04/30/2015 12:01 PM, Chris Metcalf wrote:
This patch series addresses limitations in strncpy() and strlcpy();
both the old APIs are unpleasant, as Linus nicely summarized here
a couple of days ago:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/4/28/570

and of course as other folks (Greg K-H and Linus again) said last year:

https://plus.google.com/+gregkroahhartman/posts/1amLbuhWbh5

The proposed new API (strscpy(), for "s"afe string copy) has an
easy-to-use API for detecting buffer overflow, avoids unsafe truncation
by default, and isn't subject to thread-safety attacks like the current
strlcpy implementation. See patch 2/3 for more on why strscpy() is a
good thing.

To make strscpy() work more efficiently I did the minimum tweaking
necessary to allow <asm/word-at-a-time.h> to work on all architectures,
though of course individual maintainers can still make their versions
more efficient as needed.

It's likely not necessary for per-architecture implementations of
strscpy() to be written, but I stuck with the standard __HAVE_ARCH_XXX
model just for consistency with the rest of <linux/string.h>.

I tested the implementation with a simple user-space harness, so I
believe it is correct for the corner cases I could think of. In
particular I pairwise-tested all the unaligned values of source and
dest, and tested the restriction on src page-crossing at all
unaligned offsets approaching the page boundary.

This builds on an earlier version of strscpy() submitted as
a file-static method in the arch/tile/gxio tree last year, after
an attempt to gather interest in a new generic strscpy failed:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/8/7/368

The patch series is available to be pulled from

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/cmetcalf/linux-tile.git strscpy

Chris Metcalf (3):
Make asm/word-at-a-time.h available on all architectures
string: provide strscpy() and strscpy_truncate()
tile: use global strscpy() rather than private copy

arch/arc/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/avr32/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/blackfin/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/c6x/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/cris/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/frv/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/hexagon/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/ia64/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/m32r/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/metag/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/microblaze/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/mips/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/mn10300/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/nios2/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/powerpc/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/s390/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/score/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/tile/gxio/mpipe.c | 33 ++---------
arch/tile/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/um/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/unicore32/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
arch/xtensa/include/asm/Kbuild | 1 +
include/asm-generic/word-at-a-time.h | 80 ++++++++++++++++++++++---
include/linux/string.h | 6 ++
lib/string.c | 109 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
25 files changed, 212 insertions(+), 37 deletions(-)


--
Chris Metcalf, EZChip Semiconductor
http://www.ezchip.com

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/