Re: [PATCH v2] tpm: vtpm_proxy: Double-check to avoid buffer overflow

From: Jann Horn
Date: Tue Jan 18 2022 - 14:33:20 EST


On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 7:37 PM Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> When building with -Warray-bounds, this warning was emitted:
>
> In function 'memset',
> inlined from 'vtpm_proxy_fops_read' at drivers/char/tpm/tpm_vtpm_proxy.c:102:2:
> ./include/linux/fortify-string.h:43:33: warning: '__builtin_memset' pointer overflow between offset 164 and size [2147483648, 4294967295]
> [-Warray-bounds]
> 43 | #define __underlying_memset __builtin_memset
> | ^

Can you explain what that compiler warning actually means, and which
compiler it is from? Is this from a 32-bit or a 64-bit architecture?

It sounds like the compiler (GCC?) is hallucinating a codepath on
which "len" is guaranteed to be >=2147483648, right? Why is it doing
that? Is this some kinda side effect from the fortify code?