From: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@linux.intel.com>,
Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>, Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>,
Rasmus Villemoes <linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk>,
Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@chromium.org>,
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>,
Tycho Andersen <tycho@tycho.pizza>,
Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v3 0/2] vsprintf: Don't leak pointers
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2026 18:06:47 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261015-vsprintf_kallsym-v3-0-c175c27f38b7@linutronix.de> (raw)
It is possible to leak pointers via %ps without KALLSYMS enabled.
With KALLSYMS pointers can be leaked if they can not be resolved.
The tiny series has two patches, one for each issue.
I do follow the %p format instead of printing "(unknown)" since I care
more about getting it out of the way than the actual content (as long as
it is not the leaked pointer). Last time the discussion added the h:
prefix to a hashed pointer to identify it as such. I would like to keep
this part out of the series since there are few users that expect a
certain pointer width and adding two extra characters would break that
(we could strip the two 0 on 64bit but again, not related to this
problem here).
v2…v3: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260821152614.2202196-1-bigeasy@linutronix.de/
- Instead of "(unknown)" the hashed pointer is printed. This follows
the generic %p flow.
- In v2 I argued that it is better so print the actual pointer instead
hiding it for post-mortem analysis. After looking at some backtraces
with invalid pointers (not part of the kernel image) I realised the
the PC is already part of the register dump. There I changed it back
to what %p would do if it can't resolve a pointer. Again, following
%p flow so it can be overridden at boot.
v1…v2: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260814144854.746840-1-bigeasy@linutronix.de/
- For %ps and !KALLSYMS no_hash_pointers is used to decide if the
pointer should be written or not. This aligns with the %p policy.
- For %ps and KALLSYMS, unresolved pointer continue to be leaked. It
has been pointed out it might be useful to see them in backtraces/
crashes if the return address became invalid.
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org>
Cc: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Cc: Rasmus Villemoes <linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk>
Cc: Sergey Senozhatsky <senozhatsky@chromium.org>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: Tycho Andersen <tycho@tycho.pizza>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Sebastian
---
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior (2):
vsprintf: Don't leak pointers for %ps without KALLSYMS enabled
kallsyms: Don't leak pointers for unresolved symbols
include/linux/sprintf.h | 1 +
kernel/kallsyms.c | 3 ++-
lib/vsprintf.c | 27 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
3 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: ec8bf8280261294a9b9b4520414b42704c7f9f6b
change-id: 20261015-vsprintf_kallsym-73d5ed6f800e
Best regards,
--
Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>
next reply other threads:[~2026-10-15 16:06 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-10-15 16:06 Sebastian Andrzej Siewior [this message]
2026-10-15 16:06 ` [PATCH v3 1/2] vsprintf: Don't leak pointers for %ps without KALLSYMS enabled Sebastian Andrzej Siewior
2026-10-16 3:28 ` kernel test robot
2026-10-15 16:06 ` [PATCH v3 2/2] kallsyms: Don't leak pointers for unresolved symbols Sebastian Andrzej Siewior
2026-10-16 4:54 ` kernel test robot
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