[PATCH 1/5] module: Prevent silent truncation of module name in delete_module(2)

From: Petr Pavlu
Date: Mon Jun 30 2025 - 10:40:31 EST


Passing a module name longer than MODULE_NAME_LEN to the delete_module
syscall results in its silent truncation. This really isn't much of
a problem in practice, but it could theoretically lead to the removal of an
incorrect module. It is more sensible to return ENAMETOOLONG or ENOENT in
such a case.

Update the syscall to return ENOENT, as documented in the delete_module(2)
man page to mean "No module by that name exists." This is appropriate
because a module with a name longer than MODULE_NAME_LEN cannot be loaded
in the first place.

Signed-off-by: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@xxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/module/main.c | 10 ++++++----
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/module/main.c b/kernel/module/main.c
index 413ac6ea3702..933a9854cb7d 100644
--- a/kernel/module/main.c
+++ b/kernel/module/main.c
@@ -751,14 +751,16 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE2(delete_module, const char __user *, name_user,
struct module *mod;
char name[MODULE_NAME_LEN];
char buf[MODULE_FLAGS_BUF_SIZE];
- int ret, forced = 0;
+ int ret, len, forced = 0;

if (!capable(CAP_SYS_MODULE) || modules_disabled)
return -EPERM;

- if (strncpy_from_user(name, name_user, MODULE_NAME_LEN-1) < 0)
- return -EFAULT;
- name[MODULE_NAME_LEN-1] = '\0';
+ len = strncpy_from_user(name, name_user, MODULE_NAME_LEN);
+ if (len == 0 || len == MODULE_NAME_LEN)
+ return -ENOENT;
+ if (len < 0)
+ return len;

audit_log_kern_module(name);

--
2.49.0