2.6.9-rcX cdrom.c is subject to "chaotic" behaviour

From: Andy Polyakov
Date: Wed Aug 25 2004 - 05:16:12 EST


As per http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=bk-commits-head&m=109330228416908&w=2, cdrom.c becomes subject to chaotic behavior. The culprit is newly introduced if-statement such as following:

if (cdrom_get_disc_info(cdi, &di) < offsetof(typeof(di),disc_type))

The catch is that cdrom_get_disc_info returns signed value, most notably negative one upon error, while the offsetof on the other hand is unsigned. When signed and unsigned values are compared, signed one is treated as unsigned and therefore in case of error condition in cdrom_get_disc_info the if-statement is doomed to be evaluated false, which in turn results in random values from the stack being evaluated further down.

There is another subtle problem which was there and was modified in the same code commit:

- if ((ret = cdrom_get_disc_info(cdi, &di)))
+ if ((ret = cdrom_get_disc_info(cdi, &di))
+ < offsetof(typeof(di), last_track_msb)
+ + sizeof(di.last_track_msb))
goto use_last_written;

last_track = (di.last_track_msb << 8) | di.last_track_lsb;

last_track_msb was introduced in one of later MMC specifications. Previously the problem with the cdrom.c code was that the last_track_msb value might turn uninitialized when you talk to elder units, while now last_track_lsb value returned by elder units is simply disregarded for no valid reason. The more appropriate way to deal with the problem is:

memset (&di,0,sizeof(di));
if ((ret = cdrom_get_disc_info(cdi, &di))
< (int)(offsetof(typeof(di), last_track_lsb)
+ sizeof(di.last_track_lsb)))
goto use_last_written;

last_track = (di.last_track_msb << 8) | di.last_track_lsb;

This way last_track_msb is forced to zero for elder units and last_track is maintained sane.

Further down we see:

/* if this track is blank, try the previous. */
if (ti.blank) {
last_track--;
ti_size = cdrom_get_track_info(cdi, last_track, 1, &ti);
}

What if there is no previous track? It might turn out that we never get here, because if-statement elsewhere, and check for last_track>1 will be redundant. But what if the "elsewhere" will be changed at some later point? My point is that IMO check for last_track>1 is more than appropriate here.

If you prefer the above findings to be expressed in form of patch, then I might have some time only this weekend (unfortunately). A.
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/