[PATCH v5 0/9] Improve the copy of task comm

[Yafang Shao]

On Tue, Aug 6, 2024 at 5:28 AM Linus Torvalds
<torvalds at linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 4 Aug 2024 at 00:56, Yafang Shao <laoar.shao at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > There is a BUILD_BUG_ON() inside get_task_comm(), so when you use
> > get_task_comm(), it implies that the BUILD_BUG_ON() is necessary.
>
> Let's just remove that silly BUILD_BUG_ON(). I don't think it adds any
> value, and honestly, it really only makes this patch-series uglier
> when reasonable uses suddenly pointlessly need that double-underscore
> version..
>
> So let's aim at
>
>  (a) documenting that the last byte in 'tsk->comm{}' is always
> guaranteed to be NUL, so that the thing can always just be treated as
> a string. Yes, it may change under us, but as long as we know there is
> always a stable NUL there *somewhere*, we really really don't care.
>
>  (b) removing __get_task_comm() entirely, and replacing it with a
> plain 'str*cpy*()' functions
>
> The whole (a) thing is a requirement anyway, since the *bulk* of
> tsk->comm really just seems to be various '%s' things in printk
> strings etc.
>
> And once we just admit that we can use the string functions, all the
> get_task_comm() stuff is just unnecessary.
>
> And yes, some people may want to use the strscpy_pad() function
> because they want to fill the whole destination buffer. But that's
> entirely about the *destination* use, not the tsk->comm[] source, so
> it has nothing to do with any kind of "get_task_comm()" logic, and it
> was always wrong to care about the buffer sizes magically matching.
>
> Hmm?

One concern about removing the BUILD_BUG_ON() is that if we extend
TASK_COMM_LEN to a larger size, such as 24, the caller with a
hardcoded 16-byte buffer may overflow. This could be an issue with
code in include/linux/elfcore.h and include/linux/elfcore-compat.h,
posing a risk. However, I believe it is the caller's responsibility to
explicitly add a null terminator if it uses a fixed buffer that cannot
be changed. Therefore, the following code change is necessary:

diff --git a/fs/binfmt_elf.c b/fs/binfmt_elf.c
index 5ae8045f4df4..e4b0b7cf0c1f 100644
--- a/fs/binfmt_elf.c
+++ b/fs/binfmt_elf.c
@@ -1579,6 +1579,7 @@ static int fill_psinfo(struct elf_prpsinfo
*psinfo, struct task_struct *p,
        SET_GID(psinfo->pr_gid, from_kgid_munged(cred->user_ns, cred->gid));
        rcu_read_unlock();
        get_task_comm(psinfo->pr_fname, p);
+       psinfo->pr_fname[15] = '\0';

        return 0;
 }

However, it is currently safe to remove the BUILD_BUG_ON() since
TASK_COMM_LEN is still 16.

--
Regards
Yafang