Re: [Linux-kernel-mentees] [PATCH net] rds: Prevent kernel-infoleak in rds_notify_queue_get()

From: Dan Carpenter
Date: Fri Jul 31 2020 - 06:00:12 EST


On Fri, Jul 31, 2020 at 07:53:01AM +0300, Leon Romanovsky wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 03:20:26PM -0400, Peilin Ye wrote:
> > rds_notify_queue_get() is potentially copying uninitialized kernel stack
> > memory to userspace since the compiler may leave a 4-byte hole at the end
> > of `cmsg`.
> >
> > In 2016 we tried to fix this issue by doing `= { 0 };` on `cmsg`, which
> > unfortunately does not always initialize that 4-byte hole. Fix it by using
> > memset() instead.
>
> Of course, this is the difference between "{ 0 }" and "{}" initializations.
>

No, there is no difference. Even struct assignments like:

foo = *bar;

can leave struct holes uninitialized. Depending on the compiler the
assignment can be implemented as a memset() or as a series of struct
member assignments.

regards,
dan carpenter