Re: [PATCH] hwmon: (ibmpowernv) refactor deprecated strncpy

[Guenter Roeck]

On 9/14/23 22:24, Kees Cook wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 11:21:06PM +0000, Justin Stitt wrote:
> > `strncpy` is deprecated for use on NUL-terminated destination strings [1].
> >
> > We should prefer more robust and less ambiguous string interfaces.
> >
> > A suitable replacement is `strscpy` [2] due to the fact that it
> > guarantees NUL-termination on the destination buffer without
> > unnecessarily NUL-padding since `buf` is already zero-initialized.
> >
> > Link: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/deprecated.html#strncpy-on-nul-terminated-strings [1]
> > Link: https://manpages.debian.org/testing/linux-manual-4.8/strscpy.9.en.html [2]
> > Link: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/90
> > Cc: linux-hardening@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Signed-off-by: Justin Stitt <justinstitt@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >   drivers/hwmon/ibmpowernv.c | 2 +-
> >   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/drivers/hwmon/ibmpowernv.c b/drivers/hwmon/ibmpowernv.c
> > index 594254d6a72d..57d829dbcda6 100644
> > --- a/drivers/hwmon/ibmpowernv.c
> > +++ b/drivers/hwmon/ibmpowernv.c
> > @@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ static int get_sensor_index_attr(const char *name, u32 *index, char *attr)
> >   	if (copy_len >= sizeof(buf))
> >   		return -EINVAL;
> >   
> > -	strncpy(buf, hash_pos + 1, copy_len);
> > +	strscpy(buf, hash_pos + 1, copy_len);
>
> This is another case of precise byte copying -- this just needs to be
> memcpy. Otherwise this truncates the trailing character. Imagine a name
> input of "fan#2-data". "buf" wants to get "2". copy_len is 1, and
> strscpy would eat it. :)

It is really sad that the submitters of such "cleanup" patches can't be bothered
to check what they are doing. They can't even be bothered to write a coccinelle
script that would avoid pitfalls like this one, and they expect others to do their
homework for them.

And then people wonder why there is maintainer burnout. I am so tired of that.

Guenter