[PATCH v2] tools/bootconfig: Fix integer overflow in size check

From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google)

Date: Wed Sep 09 2026 - 20:48:14 EST


From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>

Sashiko reported that on 32-bit systems, if an attacker crafts size in
the bootconfig footer such that adding BOOTCONFIG_FOOTER_SIZE wraps around
(for instance, if size is 0xFFFFFFFF), the size check in
load_xbc_from_initrd() can be bypassed:

if (stat.st_size < size + BOOTCONFIG_FOOTER_SIZE) {
pr_err("bootconfig size is too big\n");
return -E2BIG;
}

This would lead to load_xbc_fd() being called with a negative size,
resulting in an undersized allocation, heap overflow on read, and
out-of-bounds write on the terminating null byte.

Avoid the integer overflow by checking whether size is greater than
stat.st_size - BOOTCONFIG_FOOTER_SIZE. Since stat.st_size is already
verified to be at least BOOTCONFIG_FOOTER_SIZE earlier in the function,
this subtraction will never underflow.

Also reject size > XBC_DATA_MAX upfront in load_xbc_from_initrd() to
avoid allocating and reading oversized configurations into memory before
xbc_init() validation.

Fixes: 950313ebf79c ("tools: bootconfig: Add bootconfig command")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reported-by: Sashiko <sashiko-bot@xxxxxxxxxx>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260909161113.16C691F00A3A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/
Assisted-by: Antigravity:gemini-3.8-flash
Signed-off-by: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Add Cc: stable.
- Also reject if "size > XBC_DATA_MAX", that is obviously wrong.
---
tools/bootconfig/main.c | 3 ++-
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/bootconfig/main.c b/tools/bootconfig/main.c
index 7dc9fff9b637..bf6a4e216315 100644
--- a/tools/bootconfig/main.c
+++ b/tools/bootconfig/main.c
@@ -218,7 +218,8 @@ static int load_xbc_from_initrd(int fd, char **buf)
csum = le32toh(csum);

/* Wrong size error */
- if (stat.st_size < size + BOOTCONFIG_FOOTER_SIZE) {
+ if (size > XBC_DATA_MAX ||
+ size > stat.st_size - BOOTCONFIG_FOOTER_SIZE) {
pr_err("bootconfig size is too big\n");
return -E2BIG;
}