[PATCH 1/7] seq_buf: Do not pop from an overflowed seq_buf

Kees Cook kees at kernel.org
Thu Sep 17 00:23:13 UTC 2026


When a seq_buf has overflowed, its len is size + 1, so seq_buf_pop()
decrements len to size and reads buffer[size], one byte past the end of
the buffer. It also leaves len equal to size, which no longer counts as
overflowed, so a truncated seq_buf then looks like a complete, full one.

An overflowed seq_buf has no last character to pop: the length of what
was written has been lost, and the last byte of the buffer may be the
NUL written by vsnprintf() or bytes that were never committed. Return
-1 for an overflowed seq_buf, as for an empty one, and leave it
overflowed, as the rest of the seq_buf API does until seq_buf_clear()
or seq_buf_init().

The current callers do not reach this, e.g. trace_syscalls only calls
trace_seq_pop() when the trace_seq it pops from has not overflowed, and
kernel/bpf/diagnostics.c sets the length from strnlen() before popping.

Add tests for the pop corner cases.

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 16.1.0.

Fixes: 32e0f607ac6a2 ("tracing: Add trace_seq_pop() and seq_buf_pop()")
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees at kernel.org>
---
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt at goodmis.org>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat at kernel.org>
Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers at efficios.com>
Cc: "Mickaël Salaün" <mic at digikod.net>
Cc: "Günther Noack" <gnoack at google.com>
Cc: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko at linux.intel.com>
Cc: Petr Mladek <pmladek at suse.com>
Cc: "Matthew Wilcox (Oracle)" <willy at infradead.org>
Cc: Shuvam Pandey <shuvampandey1 at gmail.com>
Cc: David Gow <david at davidgow.net>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm at linux-foundation.org>
Cc: <linux-trace-kernel at vger.kernel.org>
Cc: <linux-security-module at vger.kernel.org>
Cc: <bpf at vger.kernel.org>
---
 include/linux/seq_buf.h   |  4 ++--
 include/linux/trace_seq.h |  4 +++-
 lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c | 42 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 47 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/seq_buf.h b/include/linux/seq_buf.h
index 9f2839e73f8a..f5a350347bc5 100644
--- a/include/linux/seq_buf.h
+++ b/include/linux/seq_buf.h
@@ -155,11 +155,11 @@ static inline void seq_buf_commit(struct seq_buf *s, int num)
  *
  * Removes the last written character to the seq_buf @s.
  *
- * Returns the last character or -1 if it is empty.
+ * Returns the last character, or -1 if @s is empty or has overflowed.
  */
 static inline int seq_buf_pop(struct seq_buf *s)
 {
-	if (!s->len)
+	if (!s->len || seq_buf_has_overflowed(s))
 		return -1;
 
 	s->len--;
diff --git a/include/linux/trace_seq.h b/include/linux/trace_seq.h
index 697d619aafdc..9aaa141d0965 100644
--- a/include/linux/trace_seq.h
+++ b/include/linux/trace_seq.h
@@ -86,7 +86,9 @@ static inline bool trace_seq_has_overflowed(struct trace_seq *s)
  *
  * Removes the last written character to the trace_seq @s.
  *
- * Returns the last character or -1 if it is empty.
+ * Returns the last character, or -1 if @s is empty or its buffer has
+ * overflowed. Note that a @s that is full, but has not overflowed, still
+ * pops.
  */
 static inline int trace_seq_pop(struct trace_seq *s)
 {
diff --git a/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c b/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c
index eb466386bbef..9048037f6ba0 100644
--- a/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c
+++ b/lib/tests/seq_buf_kunit.c
@@ -113,6 +113,47 @@ static void seq_buf_putc_test(struct kunit *test)
 	KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ(test, seq_buf_str(&s), "");
 }
 
+static void seq_buf_pop_test(struct kunit *test)
+{
+	DECLARE_SEQ_BUF(s, 8);
+	struct seq_buf t;
+	char *buf;
+
+	/* Nothing to pop. */
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_pop(&s), -1);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, s.len, 0);
+
+	seq_buf_puts(&s, "hello");
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_pop(&s), 'o');
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_used(&s), 4);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ(test, seq_buf_str(&s), "hell");
+
+	/* A 0xff byte must not be mistaken for an empty buffer. */
+	seq_buf_putc(&s, 0xff);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_pop(&s), 0xff);
+
+	/* A full buffer pops its last byte. */
+	seq_buf_puts(&s, "abc");
+	seq_buf_putc(&s, 'd');
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_FALSE(test, seq_buf_has_overflowed(&s));
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_used(&s), 8);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_pop(&s), 'd');
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_used(&s), 7);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_STREQ(test, seq_buf_str(&s), "hellabc");
+
+	/*
+	 * An overflowed buffer has nothing to pop, and stays overflowed. Use
+	 * a buffer allocated at its exact size, so that KASAN reports any
+	 * read past its end.
+	 */
+	buf = kunit_kmalloc(test, 16, GFP_KERNEL);
+	KUNIT_ASSERT_NOT_NULL(test, buf);
+	seq_buf_init(&t, buf, 16);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_printf(&t, "%s", "longer than sixteen"), -1);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_EQ(test, seq_buf_pop(&t), -1);
+	KUNIT_EXPECT_TRUE(test, seq_buf_has_overflowed(&t));
+}
+
 static void seq_buf_printf_test(struct kunit *test)
 {
 	DECLARE_SEQ_BUF(s, 32);
@@ -223,6 +264,7 @@ static struct kunit_case seq_buf_test_cases[] = {
 	KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_puts_test),
 	KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_puts_overflow_test),
 	KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_putc_test),
+	KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_pop_test),
 	KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_printf_test),
 	KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_printf_overflow_test),
 	KUNIT_CASE(seq_buf_get_buf_commit_test),
-- 
2.34.1




More information about the Linux-security-module-archive mailing list