RE: [PATCH] lib: vsprintf: Avoid 32-bit truncation in vsscanf number parsing

[David Laight <David.Laight@ACULAB.COM>]

From: Petr Mladek
> Sent: 12 November 2020 16:18
> 
> Adding other vsprintf maintainers and reviewes into CC.
> 
> On Thu 2020-11-12 11:17:59, Richard Fitzgerald wrote:
> > Number conversion in vsscanf converts a whole string of digits and then
> > extracts the field width part from the converted value. The maximum run
> > of digits is limited by overflow. Conversion was using either
> > simple_strto[u]l or simple_strto[u]ll based on the 'L' qualifier. This
> > created a difference in truncation between builds where long is 32-bit
> > and builds where it is 64-bit. This especially affects parsing a run of
> > contiguous digits into separate fields - the maximum length of the run
> > is 16 digits if long is 64-bit but only 8 digits if long is 32-bits.
> > For example a conversion "%6x%6x" would convert both fields correctly if
> > long is 64-bit but not if long is 32-bit.

If %6x%6x works one might expect %6x%6x%6x to also work.

> I might be just slow today. But it took me really long time to
> understand what exactly is the problem and how it is caused.
> The description is nicely detailed but somehow cryptic.
> 
> My understanding is that there is a bug when parsing numbers
> with a limited width like the above mentioned "%6x%6x".
> 
> The problem is how the width is handled:
> 
>  1. The width is ignored in the 1st step. The entire number
>     is read using simple_strto[u]l[l] functions.
> 
>  2. The width limit is achieved by dividing the result from
>     the first step until it fits the width.
> 
> It gives wrong result when there was an overflow in the 1st step.
> The high bits were lost even when the limited number would
> not overflow.

What happens if there are leading zeros on the hex input?
From the description I think 'something terrible happens'.
(Well, horribly unexpected anyway.)

I'd also expect strtoull() to 'eat' all the digits that exist,
not stop when the value got too large.

	David

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