[PATCH 20/28] perf header: Sanity check HEADER_EVENT_DESC attr.size before swap

From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo

Date: Sat May 09 2026 - 23:38:16 EST


From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx>

read_event_desc() reads nre (event count), sz (attr size), and nr
(IDs per event) from the file and uses them to control allocations
and loops without validating them against the section size.

A crafted perf.data could trigger large allocations or many loop
iterations before __do_read() eventually rejects the reads.

Add bounds checks in read_event_desc():
- Reject sz smaller than PERF_ATTR_SIZE_VER0.
- Require at least one event (nre > 0).
- Check that nre events fit in the remaining section, using the
minimum per-event footprint of sz + sizeof(u32).
- Reject attr->size > sz before calling perf_event__attr_swap()
to prevent heap out-of-bounds access.
- Check that nr IDs fit in the remaining section before allocating.

Fixes: b30b61729246 ("perf tools: Fix a problem when opening old perf.data with different byte order")
Reported-by: sashiko-bot@xxxxxxxxxx # Running on a local machine
Cc: Wang Nan <wangnan0@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ian Rogers <irogers@xxxxxxxxxx>
Assisted-by: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/util/header.c | 50 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 49 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/util/header.c b/tools/perf/util/header.c
index a8655a784eaa5ba9..0bbe90865e9c1ceb 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/header.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/header.c
@@ -2170,9 +2170,25 @@ static struct evsel *read_event_desc(struct feat_fd *ff)
if (do_read_u32(ff, &nre))
goto error;

+ /* Size of each of the nre attributes. */
if (do_read_u32(ff, &sz))
goto error;

+ /*
+ * Require at least one event with an attr no smaller than the
+ * first published struct, and reject sz values where
+ * sz + sizeof(u32) would overflow size_t (possible on 32-bit)
+ * or nre == UINT32_MAX where nre + 1 wraps to 0 in the calloc.
+ *
+ * The minimum section footprint per event is sz bytes for the
+ * attr plus a u32 for the id count, check that nre events fit.
+ */
+ if (!nre || sz < PERF_ATTR_SIZE_VER0 ||
+ sz > ff->size || (size_t)sz > SIZE_MAX - sizeof(u32) ||
+ nre == UINT32_MAX ||
+ nre > (ff->size - ff->offset) / (sz + sizeof(u32)))
+ goto error;
+
/* buffer to hold on file attr struct */
buf = malloc(sz);
if (!buf)
@@ -2188,6 +2204,9 @@ static struct evsel *read_event_desc(struct feat_fd *ff)
msz = sz;

for (i = 0, evsel = events; i < nre; evsel++, i++) {
+ struct perf_event_attr *attr = buf;
+ u32 attr_size;
+
evsel->core.idx = i;

/*
@@ -2197,6 +2216,32 @@ static struct evsel *read_event_desc(struct feat_fd *ff)
if (__do_read(ff, buf, sz))
goto error;

+ /* Reject before attr_swap to prevent OOB via bswap_safe() */
+ attr_size = ff->ph->needs_swap ? bswap_32(attr->size) : attr->size;
+ /* ABI0: size == 0 means the producer didn't set it */
+ if (!attr_size) {
+ attr_size = PERF_ATTR_SIZE_VER0;
+ /*
+ * Write back so free_event_desc() doesn't
+ * treat this event as the end-of-array sentinel
+ * (it iterates while attr.size != 0).
+ *
+ * Only for native — the swap path must NOT
+ * write native-endian VER0 here because
+ * perf_event__attr_swap() would re-swap it
+ * to 0x40000000, defeating bswap_safe() bounds.
+ * perf_event__attr_swap() has its own ABI0
+ * fallback that sets VER0 after swapping.
+ */
+ if (!ff->ph->needs_swap)
+ attr->size = attr_size;
+ }
+ if (attr_size < PERF_ATTR_SIZE_VER0 || attr_size > sz) {
+ pr_err("Event %d attr.size (%u) invalid (min: %d, max: %u)\n",
+ i, attr_size, PERF_ATTR_SIZE_VER0, sz);
+ goto error;
+ }
+
if (ff->ph->needs_swap)
perf_event__attr_swap(buf);

@@ -2218,6 +2263,10 @@ static struct evsel *read_event_desc(struct feat_fd *ff)
if (!nr)
continue;

+ /* Prevent oversized allocation from crafted nr */
+ if (nr > (ff->size - ff->offset) / sizeof(*id))
+ goto error;
+
id = calloc(nr, sizeof(*id));
if (!id)
goto error;
@@ -4995,7 +5044,6 @@ int perf_session__read_header(struct perf_session *session)
}

err = -ENOMEM;
-
if (perf_file_header__read(&f_header, header, fd) < 0)
return -EINVAL;

--
2.54.0