Re: [PATCH v4 04/11] seq_buf: Clear what a writer did not claim when a seq_buf overflows

From: bot+bpf-ci

Date: Sat Oct 03 2026 - 00:51:10 EST


> seq_buf: Clear what a writer did not claim when a seq_buf overflows

TL;DR: Commit message only: the claim that seq_buf_path() was "never exported,
unlike the other writers" looks inaccurate, since several other writers are
also unexported. The code and export look correct.

> seq_buf: Clear what a writer did not claim when a seq_buf overflows
>
> Using seq_buf_set_overflow() would leave the bytes between "len"
> and "size" untouched, so if seq_buf_str() is used on an overflowed
> seq_buf, those bytes may be exposed. For any paths that don't claim
> partially written bytes, by setting "len = size" before calling
> seq_buf_set_overflow(), wipe the unclaimed bytes. The seq_buf_puts()
> and related APIs already claim those bytes now, so only the unclaimed
> cases remain. A specific example of this was seq_buf_path() which uses
> d_path() and would write to the tail before discovering it was out
> of space, and would correctly mark a seq_buf as overflowed, but the
> path fragment would be left over.
>
> Clear from len to the end of the buffer in seq_buf_set_overflow(), which
> every overflow goes through, including seq_buf_commit() with a negative
> count.
>
> Add a test that fills a seq_buf, leaves it too little room for a path, and
> checks that nothing of the path is left in the buffer. The tests run before
> anything writable is mounted, so it takes its file from shmem.
>
> seq_buf_path() was never exported, unlike the other writers, so the
> test failed to link as a module. Export it.
>
> Tests passed under qemu on ARCH=x86_64 with GCC 16.2.0 and CONFIG_KASAN=y,
> and on big-endian ARCH=s390 with GCC s390x-linux-gnu 16.2.0, and the
> test builds as a module (CONFIG_SEQ_BUF_KUNIT_TEST=m).
>
> Assisted-by: LLM
> Reviewed-by: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees@xxxxxxxxxx>

This isn't a bug, but is the comparison in "seq_buf_path() was never
exported, unlike the other writers" accurate?

In lib/seq_buf.c the only writers with an export are seq_buf_printf(),
seq_buf_puts(), seq_buf_putc(), seq_buf_putmem() and seq_buf_putmem_hex()
(plus seq_buf_do_printk(), which is not a writer). seq_buf_vprintf(),
seq_buf_bprintf() and seq_buf_hex_dump() also write into a seq_buf and have
no EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL().

The reason for the export, that the new KUnit test calls seq_buf_path() and
has to link with CONFIG_SEQ_BUF_KUNIT_TEST=m, looks correct. Could the
sentence drop the "unlike the other writers" part, for example:

seq_buf_path() was not exported, so the test failed to link as a module.
Export it.


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