[PATCH mm] maccess: fix strncpy_from_user_nofault empty string handling

From: Mykyta Yatsenko
Date: Thu Apr 17 2025 - 11:29:11 EST


From: Mykyta Yatsenko <yatsenko@xxxxxxxx>

strncpy_from_user_nofault should return the length of the copied string
including the trailing NUL, but if the argument unsafe_addr points to
an empty string ({'\0'}), the return value is 0.

This happens as strncpy_from_user copies terminal symbol into dst
and returns 0 (as expected), but strncpy_from_user_nofault does not
modify ret as it is not equal to count and not greater than 0, so 0 is
returned, which contradicts the contract.

Signed-off-by: Mykyta Yatsenko <yatsenko@xxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c | 10 ++++++++--
mm/maccess.c | 2 +-
2 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
index 0993dfc1c5c1..86b7e5a4e235 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
@@ -800,6 +800,7 @@ static __always_inline char *test_string(char *str)
{
struct ustring_buffer *ubuf;
char *kstr;
+ int cnt;

if (!ustring_per_cpu)
return NULL;
@@ -808,7 +809,9 @@ static __always_inline char *test_string(char *str)
kstr = ubuf->buffer;

/* For safety, do not trust the string pointer */
- if (!strncpy_from_kernel_nofault(kstr, str, USTRING_BUF_SIZE))
+ cnt = strncpy_from_kernel_nofault(kstr, str, USTRING_BUF_SIZE);
+ /* Return null if empty string or error */
+ if (cnt <= 1)
return NULL;
return kstr;
}
@@ -818,6 +821,7 @@ static __always_inline char *test_ustring(char *str)
struct ustring_buffer *ubuf;
char __user *ustr;
char *kstr;
+ int cnt;

if (!ustring_per_cpu)
return NULL;
@@ -827,7 +831,9 @@ static __always_inline char *test_ustring(char *str)

/* user space address? */
ustr = (char __user *)str;
- if (!strncpy_from_user_nofault(kstr, ustr, USTRING_BUF_SIZE))
+ cnt = strncpy_from_user_nofault(kstr, ustr, USTRING_BUF_SIZE);
+ /* Return null if empty string or error */
+ if (cnt <= 1)
return NULL;

return kstr;
diff --git a/mm/maccess.c b/mm/maccess.c
index 8f0906180a94..831b4dd7296c 100644
--- a/mm/maccess.c
+++ b/mm/maccess.c
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ long strncpy_from_user_nofault(char *dst, const void __user *unsafe_addr,
if (ret >= count) {
ret = count;
dst[ret - 1] = '\0';
- } else if (ret > 0) {
+ } else if (ret >= 0) {
ret++;
}

--
2.49.0