[LinuxBIOS] [PATCH] v3: improve LAR comments, fix possible access to uninitialized memory

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net
Tue Oct 16 20:42:42 CEST 2007


On 16.10.2007 19:30, Uwe Hermann wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 13, 2007 at 07:52:55PM +0200, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
>   
>> Fix a corner case access to uninitialized memory (NULL pointer
>> dereference or worse) in case the archive length is exactly
>> sizeof(struct lar_header). Such an archive is invalid because the
>> filename directly after the LAR header is always dereferenced and has to
>> be at least 1 byte in the "empty filename" case (only terminating \0).
>> Improve LAR code documentation and reorder variables in one assignment
>> to make the code more obvious and readable. This will help people
>> understand what the code does when they look at it half a year from now.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net>
>> ---
>>
>> Index: LinuxBIOSv3/include/lar.h
>> ===================================================================
>> --- LinuxBIOSv3/include/lar.h	(Revision 505)
>> +++ LinuxBIOSv3/include/lar.h	(Arbeitskopie)
>> @@ -52,10 +52,9 @@
>>  
>>  #include <types.h>
>>  
>> -/* see note in lib/lar.c as to why this is ARCHIVE and not LARCHIVE */
>>  #define MAGIC "LARCHIVE"
>>  #define MAX_PATHLEN 1024
>> -/* NOTE -- This and the user-mode lar.h are NOT IN SYNC. Be careful. */
>> +/* NOTE -- This and the user-mode lar.h may NOT be IN SYNC. Be careful. */
>>     
>
> IN SYNC -> in sync (the NOT should stay all-caps)
>   

OK

>>  struct lar_header {
>>  	char magic[8];
>>  	u32 len;
>> Index: LinuxBIOSv3/lib/lar.c
>> ===================================================================
>> --- LinuxBIOSv3/lib/lar.c	(Revision 505)
>> +++ LinuxBIOSv3/lib/lar.c	(Arbeitskopie)
>> @@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
>>   * Given a file name in the LAR , search for it, and fill out a return struct with the 
>>   * result. 
>>   * @param archive A descriptor for current archive. This is actually a mem_file type, 
>> - *    which is a machine-dependent representation of hte actual archive. In particular, 
>> + *    which is a machine-dependent representation of the actual archive. In particular, 
>>     
>
> Yep.
>   
>>   *    things like u32 are void * in the mem_file struct. 
>>   * @param filename filename to find
>>   * @param result pointer to mem_file struct which is filled in if the file is found
>> @@ -65,30 +65,43 @@
>>  	printk(BIOS_SPEW, "LAR: Start %p len 0x%x\n", archive->start,
>>  	       archive->len);
>>  
>> -	if (archive->len < sizeof(struct lar_header))
>> -		printk(BIOS_ERR, "Error: truncated archive (%d bytes); minimum possible size is %d bytes\n", 
>> -			archive->len, sizeof(struct lar_header));
>> +	/* Why check for sizeof(struct lar_header) + 1? The code below expects
>> +	 * a filename to follow directly after the LAR header and will
>> +	 * dereference the address directly after the header. However, if
>> +	 * archive->len == sizeof(struct lar_header), printing the filename
>> +	 * will dereference memory outside the archive. Without looking at the
>> +	 * filename, the only thing we can check is that there is at least room
>> +	 * for an empty filename (only the terminating \0).
>> +	 */
>> +	if (archive->len < sizeof(struct lar_header) + 1)
>> +		printk(BIOS_ERR, "Error: truncated archive (%d bytes); minimum"
>> +			" possible size is %d bytes\n",
>> +			archive->len, sizeof(struct lar_header) + 1);
>>     
>
> Is this build-tested and tested with on a real lar file etc?
>   

It is build-tested. It should not fail with any real LAR file unless
that LAR file is deliberately truncated and therefore invalid.

>> -	/* Getting this for loop right is harder than it looks. All quantities are 
>> -	  * unsigned. The LAR stretches from (e.g.) 0xfff0000 for 0x100000 
>> -	  * bytes, i.e. to address ZERO. 
>> -	  * As a result, 'walk', can wrap to zero and keep going (this has been 
>> -	  * seen in practice). Recall that these are unsigned; walk can 
>> -	  * wrap to zero; so, question, when is walk less than any of these:
>> -	  * archive->start
>> -	  * Answer: once walk wraps to zero, it is < archive->start
>> -	  * archive->start + archive->len
>> -	  * archive->start + archive->len  - 1
>> -	  * Answer: In the case that archive->start + archive->len == 0, ALWAYS!
>> -	  * A lot of expressions have been tried and all have been wrong. 
>> -	  * So what would work? Simple:
>> -	  * test for walk < archive->start + archive->len - 1 to cover the case
>> -	  *	that the archive does NOT occupy ALL of the top of memory and 
>> -	  *	wrap to zero; 
>> -	  * and test for walk >= archive->start, 
>> -	  * to cover the case that you wrapped to zero. 
>> -	  * Unsigned pointer arithmetic that wraps to zero can be messy.
>> -	  */
>> +	/* Getting this for loop right is harder than it looks. All quantities
>> +	 * are unsigned. The LAR stretches from (e.g.) 0xfff0000 for 0x100000
>> +	 * bytes, i.e. to address ZERO.
>> +	 * As a result, 'walk', can wrap to zero and keep going (this has been
>> +	 * seen in practice). Recall that these are unsigned; walk can
>> +	 * wrap to zero; so, question, when is walk less than any of these:
>> +	 * archive->start
>> +	 * Answer: once walk wraps to zero, it is < archive->start
>> +	 * archive->start + archive->len
>> +	 * archive->start + archive->len  - 1
>> +	 * Answer: In the case that archive->start + archive->len == 0, ALWAYS!
>> +	 * A lot of expressions have been tried and all have been wrong.
>> +	 * So what would work? Simple:
>> +	 * test for walk < archive->start + archive->len - sizeof(lar_header)
>> +	 *	to cover the case that the archive does NOT occupy ALL of the
>> +	 *	top of memory and wrap to zero; RESIST the temptation to change
>> +	 *	that comparison to <= because if a header did terminate the
>> +	 *	archive, the filename (stored directly after the header) would
>> +	 *	be outside the archive and you'd get a nice NULL pointer for
>> +	 *	the filename
>> +	 * and test for walk >= archive->start,
>> +	 *	to cover the case that you wrapped to zero.
>> +	 * Unsigned pointer arithmetic that wraps to zero can be messy.
>> +	 */
>>  	for (walk = archive->start;
>>  	     (walk < (char *)(archive->start + archive->len - sizeof(struct lar_header))) && 
>>  			(walk >= (char *)archive->start); walk += 16) {
>> @@ -98,7 +111,7 @@
>>  		header = (struct lar_header *)walk;
>>  		fullname = walk + sizeof(struct lar_header);
>>  
>> -		printk(BIOS_SPEW, "LAR: search for %s\n", fullname);
>> +		printk(BIOS_SPEW, "LAR: seen member %s\n", fullname);
>>  		// FIXME: check checksum
>>  
>>  		if (strcmp(fullname, filename) == 0) {
>> @@ -115,11 +128,20 @@
>>  				result->compression, result->entry, result->loadaddress);
>>  			return 0;
>>  		}
>> -		// skip file
>> -		walk += (ntohl(header->len) + ntohl(header->offset) -
>> -			1) & 0xfffffff0;
>> +		/* skip file:
>> +		 * The next iteration of the for loop will add 16 to walk, so
>> +		 * we now add offset (from header start to data start) and len
>> +		 * (member length), subtract 1 (to get the address of the last
>> +		 * byte of the member) and round this down to the next 16 byte
>> +		 * boundary.
>> +		 * In the case of consecutive archive members with header-
>> +		 * before-member structure, the next iteration of the loop will
>> +		 * start exactly at the beginning of the next header.
>> +		 */
>> +		walk += (ntohl(header->offset) + ntohl(header->len) - 1)
>> +			 & 0xfffffff0;
>>  	}
>> -	printk(BIOS_SPEW, "NO FILE FOUND\n");
>> +	printk(BIOS_SPEW, "LAR: NO FILE FOUND\n");
>>     
>
> 	printk(BIOS_SPEW, "LAR: NO FILE FOUND!\n");
>   
OK

>>  	return 1;
>>  }
>>  
>> @@ -157,7 +179,7 @@
>>   * the loadaddress pointer in the mem_file struct. 
>>   * @param archive A descriptor for current archive.
>>   * @param filename filename to find
>> - * returns 0 on success, -1 otherwise
>> + * returns entry on success, (void*)-1 otherwise
>>   */
>>  
>>  void *load_file(struct mem_file *archive, const char *filename)
>> Index: LinuxBIOSv3/util/lar/lar.h
>> ===================================================================
>> --- LinuxBIOSv3/util/lar/lar.h	(Revision 505)
>> +++ LinuxBIOSv3/util/lar/lar.h	(Arbeitskopie)
>> @@ -61,13 +61,15 @@
>>  typedef uint32_t u32;
>>  typedef uint8_t  u8;
>>  
>> -/* NOTE -- This and the linuxbios lar.h are NOT IN SYNC. Be careful. */
>> +/* NOTE -- This and the user-mode lar.h may NOT be IN SYNC. Be careful. */
>>     
>
> IN SYNC -> in sync
>   
OK

>>  struct lar_header {
>>  	char magic[8];
>>  	u32 len;
>>  	u32 reallen;
>>  	u32 checksum;
>>  	u32 compchecksum;
>> +	/* Filenames are limited to 2^31-1-sizeof(lar_header)-1 bytes.
>> +	 * "Nobody will ever need more than 640k" */
>>  	u32 offset;
>>  	/* Compression:
>>  	 * 0 = no compression
>> Index: LinuxBIOSv3/arch/x86/stage1.c
>> ===================================================================
>> --- LinuxBIOSv3/arch/x86/stage1.c	(Revision 505)
>> +++ LinuxBIOSv3/arch/x86/stage1.c	(Arbeitskopie)
>> @@ -69,7 +69,7 @@
>>  }
>>  
>>  /*
>> - * This function is called from assembler code whith its argument on the
>> + * This function is called from assembler code with its argument on the
>>   * stack. Force the compiler to generate always correct code for this case.
>>   */
>>  void __attribute__((stdcall)) stage1_main(u32 bist)
>> @@ -140,7 +140,7 @@
>>  	} else {
>>  		printk(BIOS_DEBUG, "Choosing fallback boot.\n");
>>  		ret = execute_in_place(&archive, "fallback/initram");
>> -		/* Try a normal boot if fallback doesn't exists in the lar.
>> +		/* Try a normal boot if fallback doesn't exist in the lar.
>>  		 * TODO: There are other ways to do this.
>>  		 * It could be ifdef or the boot flag could be forced.
>>  		 */
>>     
>
>
> Looks good otherwise. With the above fixes:
>
> Acked-by: Uwe Hermann <uwe at hermann-uwe.de>
>   

Thanks, will fix and commit.

Carl-Daniel




More information about the coreboot mailing list