Re: [PATCH] execve.2: execve also returns E2BIG if a string is too long

[Alejandro Colomar]

Hi Matthew,

On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 11:11:24AM -0400, Matthew House wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 10:47 AM Alejandro Colomar <alx@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 09:44:29AM -0400, Matthew House wrote:
> > > To expand on this, there are basically two separate byte limits in
> > > fs/exec.c, one for each individual argv/envp string, and another for all
> > > strings and all pointers to them as a whole. To put the whole thing in
> > > pseudocode, the checks work effectively like this, assuming I haven't made
> > > any errors:
> > >
> > > int argc, envc;
> > > unsigned long bytes, limit;
> > >
> > > /* assume that argv has already been adjusted to add an empty argv[0] */
> > > argc = 0, envc = 0, bytes = 0;
> > > for (char **a = argv; *a != NULL; a++, argc++) {
> > >     if (strlen(*a) >= MAX_ARG_STRLEN)
> >
> > Are you sure this is >= and not > ?
> 
> Yes. In general, the kernel's string limits tend to include the trailing
> null byte. There are two places where this limit is enforced, one for the
> pathname (or full pathname for execveat) and the other for the argv/envp
> strings. The pathname is handled by copy_string_kernel():
> 
> 	int len = strnlen(arg, MAX_ARG_STRLEN) + 1 /* terminating NUL */;
> 
> 	if (len == 0)
> 		return -EFAULT;
> 	if (!valid_arg_len(bprm, len))
> 		return -E2BIG;
> 
> where valid_arg_len(bprm, len) is just (len <= MAX_ARG_STRLEN). Here,
> strnlen() has the same behavior as the ordinary libc strnlen(3),
> effectively returning min(strlen(arg), MAX_ARG_STRLEN). Thus, the check
> succeeds iff strlen(arg) + 1 <= MAX_ARG_STRLEN, or equivalently, iff
> strlen(arg) < MAX_ARG_STRLEN.
> 
> Next, each of the environment and argument strings is handled by
> copy_strings():
> 
> 		len = strnlen_user(str, MAX_ARG_STRLEN);
> 		if (!len)
> 			goto out;
> 
> 		ret = -E2BIG;
> 		if (!valid_arg_len(bprm, len))
> 			goto out;
> 
> The strnlen_user() function, per its documentation, is explicitly inclusive
> of the trailing null byte:
> 
>  * Returns the size of the string INCLUDING the terminating NUL.
>  * If the string is too long, returns a number larger than @count. User
>  * has to check the return value against "> count".
>  * On exception (or invalid count), returns 0.
> 
> Thus, the check succeeds iff the size including the null byte is
> <= MAX_ARG_STRLEN, i.e., iff strlen(arg) + 1 <= MAX_ARG_STRLEN, or
> strlen(arg) < MAX_ARG_STRLEN.

Thanks!  It's a bit confusing to see the terms 'len' and '_STRLEN'
meaning length+1, but it makes sense now.

Cheers,
Alex

> 
> Matthew House

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

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